Ex-Trinamool councillor arrested in disproportionate assets case now under ED scanner

Kolkata, July 2 (IANS) Former Trinamool Congress councillor from Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation in North 24 Parganas district, Debraj Chakraborty, arrested by the West Bengal Police in connection with a disproportionate assets case, has now come under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

He was arrested on Wednesday evening. Sources aware of the development said the Central investigating agency officials have sought details of the main charges against Chakraborty in this particular disproportionate assets case from the state police and also asked for the related documents.

An ED insider said that an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) will be filed accusing Chakraborty of money laundering, and thereafter, the officials of the ED, the investigation arm of the Union Finance Ministry, will start a separate probe.

It is learnt that ED’s Kolkata regional office has already communicated its preliminary observations in the matter to the Central agency’s headquarters in New Delhi and is currently awaiting a green signal from the headquarters to file the ECIR and begin the probe into the money laundering angle.

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.

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 the grounds that the couple has a four-month-old daughter.

Chakraborty was arrested on Wednesday evening in Purulia by the state police.

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 elections.

Debraj, a councillor of Bidhannagar Municipality, was known as an influential person in the area.

There are serious allegations against the couple, including 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.

–IANS

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