Puri/Kolkata: Trinamool Congress (TMC) councillor Sushanta Ghosh of Ward No 108 under Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) was arrested in the coastal town of Puri by a joint team of Kolkata Police and Odisha Police on Wednesday.
Ghosh had been absconding for days amid serious allegations of extortion, cheating, and forgery.
This comes days after his driver, Sujit Kumar Chowdhury, was nabbed near Belda along Bengal-Odisha border in West Midnapore. Interrogation of the driver and other associates provided crucial leads confirming that the TMC councillor had crossed into Odisha.
Ghosh is expected to be produced before a local court in Odisha before being taken to Kolkata.
A prominent TMC lead
er from Kasba area, he went underground following allegations by a hawkers’ association near the EM Bypass-Ruby crossing of extorting around Rs 3 crore. Around Rs 3-4 lakh each was allegedly collected from hawkers to allow them to operate businesses, allocate shops, or secure footpath stalls in Anandapur-Ruby market.
A formal complaint was lodged against him at Anandapur police station on May 29.
It is alleged that his driver, Chowdhury, used to collect money from the hawkers on Ghosh’s behalf. Ghosh’s right-hand man, Sujit Kumar Pal alias Bachchan, was also arrested from Kolkata airport in connection with the case on June 10. Following which, cyber cells analysed his phone logs to track the councillor.
Notably, Ghosh had previously resigned from his post as the Chairman of KMC’s Borough 12 after the TMC’s defeat in the assembly elections. At the time, he stepped down under the pretext that the police administration, led by Mamata Banerjee, had failed to apprehend the main accused responsible for an attack launched against him in 2024.
Last month, the West Bengal Special Task Force (STF) had arrested TMC MLA Dilip Mondal from a hotel in Puri in connection with a case involving inflammatory speeches and threats directed at rival political parties during a victory rally held at Malanga near Baruipur on May 11.