Ex-min Shyamaprasad Mukherjee held for embezzlement of `10 cr

Kolkata: BJP leader Shyamaprasad Mukherjee was arrested on Sunday morning for allegedly being involved in financial irregularities of nearly Rs 10 crore at Bishnupur Municipality.

The embezzlement of funds had taken place as the sanctioned money of at least 55 schemes of development works got transferred to different bank accounts without the projects getting implemented when he was the chairman of Bishnupur Municipality.

Mukherjee has been remanded in police custody for four days after being produced before the Bishnupur Court. Mukherjee, who once happened to be the state Textile minister for a few months during the first term of the Trinamool Congress government, joined BJP in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah just ahead of the Assembly polls, within a few days after he was removed from the post of chairman of the Board of Administrator of Bishnupur Municipality.

A case, under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), was registered based on a complaint lodged by the Sub Divisional Officer (SDO) of Bishnupur, Anup Kumar Dutta, at Bishnupur Police station on August 20. Mukherjee, however, claimed that he was unaware about the reason behind his arrest.

Local BJP leaders claimed that he was being framed for joining the saffron camp. Trinamool Congress Bankura district president Shyamal Santra said: "No one should interfere or pass any comment to safeguard someone as there is law to judge whether one is guilty or innocent." It needs a mention that Mukherjee's name had also cropped up in Saradha Group chit fund cement case. He was also grilled by the ED.