Top Bengal BJP leader held for fraud, claims charges false

WEST BENGAL BJP vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar was arrested on Saturday evening following interrogation for more than eight hours at Bidhannagar police station in the city.

“Majumdar has been arrested under IPC Sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 506 (criminal intimidation),” said Santosh Pandey, DCP (detective department), Bidhannagar Police.

While Majumdar tweeted that a “false complaint was lodged in July, 2016. Now that was raked up - without any substance or evidence...”, state BJP called the arrest an act of “political terrorism” by the Mamata Banerjee government.

An FIR had earlier been filed against Majumdar in 2014, when nearly 3,000 people who had cleared the School Service Commission test but were yet to be posted, had protested against the government.

“Majumdar was then in the Congress and had come with his then colleague Pradeep Bhattacharya to extend support (to us),” said Arup Ratan Rai, complainant in the case. “Majumdar told us he would get us the jobs for Rs 7 lakh. We gave him the money — all in cash. We had handed over Rs 4 lakh at his Salt Lake office in December 2014, by which time he had joined the BJP. In 2015, we gave him another Rs 3 lakh.” However, the “jobs” never materialised, he alleged.

According to Rai, a few of them later approached Mazumdar in 2016 to get back the money but “he denied taking any money from us and also threatened us”. They subsequently lodged a police complaint, Rai said.

Asked why he was arrested, a police source said, “We are not satisfied with his responses. He was not even able to defend himself against the charges.”

The development comes close on the heels of two TMC leaders being arrested by CBI in alleged chit fund scams.