Bharati Ghosh, a former West Bengal IPS officer who was earlier wanted in an alleged extortion case, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in New Delhi on Monday, 4 February.
On 1 February 2018, Ghosh’s home was raided by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and almost exactly a year later, she joined BJP in the presence of Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, and party leaders Mukul Roy and Kailash Vijayvargiya.
Ghosh was the West Midnapore SP for six years and commandant of the third battalion of state armed police before resigning from the service in December 2018.
Currently, she is under the scanner of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for extortion and criminal conspiracy, reported The Indian Express.
Who is Ghosh?
Ghosh is a management graduate from Harvard University who also worked as a UN peacekeeper in Kosovo and Bosnia before returning to India in 2011 to become the superintendent of police of the West Midnapore district. Incidentally, this happened the same year Trinamool Congress came to power with Mamata Banerjee as the chief minister of West Bengal.
Ghosh is credited with cracking down against Maoists. She was considered one of the top police officers and slowly became a close aide to Mamata.
During 2014 Lok Sabha elections and the West Bengal Assembly elections of 2016, the Election Commission (EC) received complaints about Ghosh intimidating poll officials, The Indian Express reported.
However, Ghosh was still awarded the Chief Minister's medal for Commendable Service in 2014.
Relations Sour Between Mamata and Ghosh
Trouble began to brew when Ghosh grew close to Mukul Roy, especially after he left TMC to join the BJP.
In March 2018, TMC sources had told the The Quint the breach between Ghosh and the CM took place in the wake of the 2017 by-election to the Sabang Assembly constituency, when former MLA Manas Bhuiyan, who defected from the Congress to the TMC in 2016, was implicated in a murder case allegedly at the behest of the police.
Subsequently, in December 2017, she was transferred from her post of the commanding officer of the West Bengal Armed Police (WBAP) third battalion to Barrackpore in North 24 Parganas district, which is considered to be a less significant post than the SP West Midnapore.
She resigned from her post two days after the transfer.
Extortion Case and Allegations of Absconding
In February 2018, Midnapore resident Chandan Majhi lodged a complaint of extortion and criminal conspiracy against Ghosh, her husband and other police officers. The CID had taken up the case.
Majhi alleged that, at Ghosh’s orders, some police officers had taken 375 grams of gold from him and promised high returns under a scheme during demonisation. He claimed they never paid him back.
The Ghatal court in West Midnapore ordered an inquiry into the case, which led to the arrest of seven police officers. In its charge sheet, the CID mentioned the recovery of a huge amount of cash and gold jewellery from a series of raids at flats owned by Ghosh. All the accused were charged under sections of forgery, extortion and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Ghosh’s husband, MAV Raju, was arrested on 7 August 2018 reported Times Now News. After evading arrest, Ghosh’s former bodyguard Sujit Mondal was also arrested by the CID.
The charge sheet filed by CID against Ghosh marks her as an absconder, although her lawyer Pinaki Bhattacharya said that the Supreme Court has ordered she cannot be arrested until the next hearing.
(With inputs from The Indian Express and Times Now)
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