Kolkata, May 28: West Bengal police have reported the discovery of ₹2.24 crore in cash buried at the farm of Dipankar Bhattacharya, the chairman of the Trinamool Congress-controlled Baduria municipality in North 24 Parganas district. The cash was found in four trolley bags and one sack during a police operation on Thursday.
Dipankar Bhattacharya was arrested on corruption charges last Monday at a hotel, where ₹80 lakh in cash was seized from him. According to a police officer, the recovered cash was counted multiple times in the presence of bank officials, confirming the total amount of ₹2.24 crore.
In total, authorities have now recovered ₹3.04 crore from Bhattacharya, including the cash found during his arrest. He was presented in district court on Tuesday and has been remanded to police custody.
Sources within the state police revealed that during interrogation, Bhattacharya admitted to hiding more cash on his farm. Following this, police took him to the site, where the cash was unearthed.
Bhattacharya has faced allegations of corruption for an extended period. Previously, police had also recovered around 4,000 government tarpaulins from a local TMC office and Bhattacharya’s garden home in Baduria.
Two separate complaints were filed against the Baduria municipality chairman at the police station—one by the CPI(M) and another by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These complaints led to his arrest on Monday night.
Questions are now being raised regarding how Bhattacharya amassed such a large sum of cash. He currently faces two corruption charges: one related to taking a commission for house allocations under the ‘Banglar Bari’ scheme and another for allegedly extorting money from local residents, particularly traders.