Ex-Trinamool Councillor Arrested In Disproportionate Assets Case

The West Bengal Police on Wednesday arrested former Trinamool Congress councillor from Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation in North 24 Parganas district, Debraj Chakraborty, in relation to an ongoing disproportionate assets case registered against him.Last week, the Calcutta High Court's single-judge bench of Justice Jay Sengupta rejected the anticipatory bail plea from Chakraborty, the husband of former Trinamool Congress MLA Aditi Munshi, an acclaimed devotional singer in personal life.However, the same single-judge bench, on the same day, granted an interim anticipatory bail to Munshi, a co-accused in the same disproportionate assets case.The singer-turned-politician was granted anticipatory bail on grounds that the couple has a four-month-old daughter and that consideration was taken into account while granting interim relief to the mother.Since the arrest of Chakraborty in the case became imminent, he was finally arrested on Wednesday evening from Purulia.The police had started an investigation against Debraj and Aditi on charges of undeclared assets.It is alleged that Aditi, the then Trinamool Congress MLA from Rajarhat-Gopalpur assembly constituency in North 24 Parganas district, and her husband transferred assets worth at least Rs 100 crore anonymously and in the names of relatives and acquaintances before the 2026 assembly elections.Debraj, a councillor of Bidhannagar Municipality, was known to be an influential person in the area.There are serious allegations against the couple, such as assets disproportionate to income, concealment of assets and money laundering.Even Aditi has been accused of understating her assets in the election affidavit that she filed in the recently concluded West Bengal assembly polls in which she was defeated.Last week, the Calcutta High Court, while granting the interim anticipatory bail to Aditi, imposed many conditions for granting the same.The bench imposed an interim restriction on any foreign travel by Munshi or her husband without prior approval of the Calcutta High Court and directed both of them to surrender their passports before a lower court.The single-judge bench further observed that during the interim period neither Munshi nor her husband would make any attempt to contact or influence any witness in the case.At the same time, Munshi would also not be allowed to enter any area under the jurisdiction of Baguiati Police Station, where the case was registered.(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)