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Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee’s personal assistant Sumit Roy has been arrested by the West Bengal CID from Banerjee’s residence, shortly
after the Supreme Court rejected his anticipatory bail plea in connection with the alleged Salboni land fraud case. A joint team of the West Bengal CID and Special Task Force (STF) reached the residence of Abhishek Banerjee after the investigation agency received inputs that Roy was present there. The arrest came hours after the Supreme Court dismissed Roy’s plea seeking protection from arrest. The case relates to allegations of government land in Salboni, West Midnapore, being shown as private property using allegedly forged documents and subsequently sold illegally.
The West Bengal government had told the Supreme Court that custodial interrogation of Roy was necessary for the investigation. The state alleged that large amounts of cash had been deposited into Roy’s bank account and claimed that the total transactions amounted to around Rs 15 crore. A Rs 71 lakh cash deposit was also cited during the proceedings.
The state further alleged that Roy had not adequately cooperated with investigators and that his custodial interrogation was required to establish the source of the money and its alleged connection with the land transactions.
Roy’s lawyers have rejected the allegations. They told the Supreme Court that he had cooperated with the investigation and appeared before investigators several times. They also said his questioning had been videographed.
Roy had earlier approached the Calcutta High Court for anticipatory bail, but the plea was rejected on August 3.
The Supreme Court subsequently granted him interim protection from arrest while examining his challenge. On September 9, the West Bengal government again told the top court that custodial interrogation was required and placed details of the investigation before the bench.
The latest arrest also brings back focus on an earlier police search at Abhishek Banerjee’s residence. In June, Salboni police had conducted a late-night operation at the TMC leader’s Kolkata home while looking for Roy in connection with the same investigation. Roy was not found during that search.
Roy is expected to be produced before a court in Medinipur on Friday, with investigators likely to seek his custody for further questioning.
