Constable’s wife arrested in Cooch Behar embezzlement case

Cooch Behar: Cooch Behar police have arrested the wife of a constable in connection with a cash embezzlement case. The constable, employed at the Police Superintendent’s Office, stands accused of embezzling lakhs of rupees over several years in the name of civic volunteers.

On Saturday, a special police team, led by a senior officer, visited the residence of Constable Ashraful Alam, who resides in the Pundibari area. It was there that Constable Ashraful Alam’s wife, Binati Begum, was apprehended.

Dyutiman Bhattacharya, the District Police Superintendent of Cooch Behar, stated: “Although Binati is a housewife, her bank account contained lakhs of rupees, totaling to approximately Rs 15 lakh. She could not substantiate the sources of the money found in her bank account.” According to police sources, the accused, Ashraful, was employed in the Cooch Behar Superintendent of Police’s office and was responsible for managing the salary accounts of civic volunteers in Cooch Behar. Police found out that Ashraful had fraudulently added the names of 10 to 15 individuals to the list of civic volunteers, falsely claiming they were civic volunteers, and then withdrew money using accounts held by several of his relatives.

Initially, the police estimated the amount of fraud to be Rs 52 lakhs. However, upon further investigation, it was uncovered that the constable possessed an expensive car and several bighas of land in Siliguri, suggesting that the embezzled funds could exceed crores of rupees. As of now, Constable Ashraful Alam remains at large.