Kolkata: The state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Friday submitted a charge-sheet against former IPS officer Bharati Ghosh marking her as an absconder along with eight others at Ghatal court in West Midnapore. Apart from Ghosh, her bodyguard Sujit Mondal has also been shown as an absconder in the charge-sheet.
According to a senior official of the state CID, all those named in the charge-sheet has been slapped with cases including forgery, extortion and Prevention of Corruption Act.
The CID has already arrested six persons in this connection including four police officials — former Circle Inspector of Ghatal Subhankar Dey, former Officer-in-Charge of Daspur police station Pradip Rath, former OC of Ghatal Chitta Pal and Assistant Sub-Inspector Debasish Das.
A businessman from Ghatal, Bimal Gharai and caretaker of Ghosh's flat at Madurdaha in Kolkata, Rajmangal Singh have also been arrested.
It may be mentioned that the state CID had taken up the case on basis of a complaint of extortion and criminal conspiracy at Daspur police station on February 1 by a gold trader named Chandan Majhi against certain police officers in the district who were close to former superintendent of West Midnapore Bharati Ghosh.
The CID sleuths in the charge-sheet have also mentioned the huge amount of cash and gold jewellery that was recovered from a series of raids at flats owned by Ghosh and opening of lockers from a nationalised bank branch in Kolkata during the course of the investigation.
The investigators, however, have remained tight-lipped about whether the charge-sheet figures the name of Bharati's husband MAV Raju, who has been granted anticipatory bail by Calcutta High Court. The sleuths had questioned Raju in connection with this case on more than one occasion.
The charge-sheet states that gold was taken from traders assuring a high rate of return after demonetisation of high-value notes was announced.