CID seizes Rs 40 lakh in pre-poll raid at Bhowanipore

KOLKATA: In a drive against unaccounted-for cash flow before the elections, the CID on Saturday seized Rs 40 lakh from Bhowanipore. The cash belonged to a businessman from Baltikuri in Howrah, CID said.



“We had leads on money exchanging hands at Bhowanipore. We raided a couple of places on Saturday and carried out the seizure. We believe this money was supposed to be used in the upcoming elections. We have formed 11 teams to probe this link,” a senior officer said.

The directorate of revenue intelligence also gave out details about its raids between March 25 and 28, during which over 16kg gold was seized. The consignment was to be smuggled to Myanmar through Manipur, he said. The first raid was carried out on a Sudder Street hotel, where two suspects, Mahesh Rai and Rita Maisdek, were arrested with 5kg gold, worth Rs 1.65 crore. Later, another 3kg gold was found during a raid at Salt Lake, and three persons — Raju Dutta, Chiranjit Dutta and Suman Saha — were arrested. A day later, one more raid at Burrabazar led to the seizure of 8kg gold.

Kolkata Police also recovered 20 crude bombs from Habaken Depot in the Port area around 9.30pm on Friday.

Sources said commissioner Anuj Sharma had asked cops to intensify operations to recover illegal weapons, ammunition and bombs. “We have been instructed to note down details of every political rally in advance and send daily reports to Lalbazar. All model code of conduct violations must be indexed and recorded on video,” an officer said.

The police continued its drive to round up notorious criminals and on Friday, arrested Beniapukur residents Sk Haroon Rashid and Sk Hashim, who have several cases of extortion against them.