Dinhata Municipality ‘forgery’: 2 more arrested, sent to police custody

Cooch Behar: Two more individuals have been arrested in connection with the ongoing Dinhata Municipality building plan “scam” case and have been remanded to eight days police custody.

On Sunday morning, the Dinhata Police arrested Arkaprabha Dasgupta, an engineer from Cooch Behar, and Dinhata Municipality overseer Hari Barman. Both were produced before the Dinhata Sub-Divisional Court, which remanded them to police custody. Earlier, Uttam Chakraborty, a municipal employee, was arrested in the case on December 30. He was subsequently remanded to police custody for 13 days. According to police sources, Chakraborty’s interrogation led to the emergence of several new names, which have prompted further investigations.

The case surfaced when a resident of Dinhata, Ward 2, attempted to renew a building plan at the municipality and discovered that the documents were forged. The resident immediately filed a written complaint with Dinhata Municipality officials, who in turn lodged a formal complaint with the police.

Following the complaint, the police began questioning municipality staff, which eventually led to Chakraborty’s arrest.

On December 31, Chakraborty’s bail application was rejected by the Dinhata Sub-Divisional Court, and he was remanded to 13 days of police custody. Further questioning of the arrested municipal worker revealed the involvement of others, prompting the arrest of Dasgupta and Barman. Nihar Rajan Gupta, Public Prosecutor of Dinhata Sub Divisional Court, said: “The police applied for 14-day remand for both individuals, but the Sub-Divisional Court granted an 8-day police custody order for each of them.”