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Tripura’s graft-accused former minister arrested from hospital, after 6 days of manhunt
According to the police, they got a tip off about CPM’s Badal Choudhury and his wife arriving at a private hospital (ILS hospitals) on Monday at around 9:10 PM.
After six days of manhunt, graft-accused former PWD minister of Tripura Badal Choudhury was arrested on Monday night from a hospital where he is currently admitted, police said. The arrest comes days after nine cops were suspended by Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb for failing to arrest the ex-minister
According to the police, they got a tip off about CPM’s Badal Choudhury and his wife arriving at a private hospital (ILS hospitals) on Monday at around 9:10 PM. He came there with the complaint of uneasiness and doctors conducted a check-up. He was later admitted in the ICU.
“We arrested Badal Choudhury at around 9:40 PM. His medication is going on under the watch of the police officials. According to doctors, his blood pressure is high,” said DSP Crime Branch Ajay Kumar Das on Tuesday morning.
Choudhury, who has served as PWD minister four terms in previous Left Front governments, was booked by the West Agartala Police on October 13, along with former chief secretary Yashpal Singh and retired PWD chief engineer Sunil Bhowmik, for alleged corruption, cheating, criminal breach of trust, causing disappearance of evidence of offence etc., related to infrastructures construction works in 2008-09. The amount involved in the construction projects was is estimated to be over Rs. 600 crore.
After the case was lodged against him on October 13, Choudhury got interim bail from a lower court till October 16. Since then, the police was unable to locate him despite searches at many places throughout the state. After the court rejected his plea for the extension of bail, his lawyers moved High Court, which heard the case on Monday but is yet to give its order.
Sunil Bhowmik was arrested in the case on October 14 and was remanded in police custody. He was admitted in GBP hospital due to illness on Sunday.
In a show of support for the former minister, Opposition leader and former chief minister Manik Sarkar , Left MLAs and other top CPM leaders arrived at the hospital to inquire about his health.