CID sleuths find 80 bhori gold jewellery in 2 bank lockers of Bharati Ghosh

Kolkata: Gold jewellery weighing around 80 bhori has been found after opening two lockers of former IPS officer Bharati Ghosh in the Southern Avenue branch of a nationalised bank on Tuesday.

The lockers were opened in the presence of her husband MAV Raju, after the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) received a court order.

It may be mentioned that the name of Ghosh and her husband have cropped up in connection with two cases, including that of the Daspur incident, in which gold was taken from traders assuring high rate of return, after demonetisation of high value notes was announced.

CID had summoned the husband of the former IPS officer for questioning him in this connection. He was summoned in the investigating agency's headquarter at Bhawani Bhavan, following raids in the houses of Ghosh and her close ones.

Raju didn't turn up in earlier occasions before CID, citing illness. On Tuesday, he arrived before the CID officers and faced interrogation for a few hours.

Sources said that he was being asked about the Daspur case. At the same time, he was also interrogated to get more property related details. It may be mentioned that the CID officers have seized many things from the houses of Ghosh. So, they enquired Raju to know the source of income, which allowed them to buy the seized goods.

After interrogation, he was taken to the bank where the lockers were opened in his presence, sources said, adding that from the first locker, the investigating officers have found gold jewellery weighing somewhere around 30 bhoris. They also opened the second locker and it has been learnt that the sleuths have found more gold jewellery there, weighing around 50 bhoris.

Ghosh had claimed that she had received the jewellery kept in the bank lockers during her marriage and she had furnished all documents to the concerned authorities in this connection. She had claimed that she belonged to a "zamindar" family and she had received gold jewellery weighing around 920 grams, during her marriage. The same was in the bank lockers, she claimed.

Experts have been engaged to examine fingerprints on the jewellery and they are also checking the hallmarks for authentication.