Kolkata: Police on Sunday arrested Gobinda Hazra, a close aide of Rajib Banerjee, for his alleged involvement in misappropriation of public money. Hazra has been remanded to police custody for three days after he was produced at the Howrah Court on Monday.
The accused Gobinda Hazra was the panchayat Pradhan of Jagadishpur Panchayat in Liluah. He was removed from the post after he joined the BJP. It may be mentioned that Hazra and Banerjee joined the saffron camp on the same day.
According to police, a few weeks ago a complaint was lodged against Hazra for misappropriating the panchayat's fund during his tenure as the Pradhan. After a preliminary probe cops reportedly found his involvement and started looking for him. To evade arrest, Hazra fled to his sister's house at Kalna in East Burdwan. On Sunday night, police arrested him from there. Apart from misappropriating public money, he reportedly had taken money from several people by promising to provide necessary help as the Pradhan.
Though BJP claimed that Hazra has been arrested just because he joined BJP following Banerjee, however, Trinamool Congress leadership dismissed the allegations and stated that several people had made allegations against him.