Siliguri: BJP worker arrested in fake birth & death cert racket

Siliguri: In a fresh development in the fake birth and death certificate racket linked to Kharibari Rural Hospital, police have arrested a BJP worker identified as Kundan Kumar Das, a resident of Kharibari. According to police sources, Das owns a cyber café in the Adhikari area of Kharibari and was a close associate of the prime accused, Partha Saha, a data entry operator at the hospital.

Police revealed that Kundan allegedly acted as a key middleman in the racket, collecting orders for fake certificates from clients and passing them on to Partha in exchange for money. Sources added that Das had also contested the last Panchayat elections as a BJP candidate. Photos of the accused with a BJP MLA and former minister have also surfaced, sources said. Police presented Kundan before the Siliguri court on Tuesday.

Earlier, on October 28, the Detective Department (DD) of the Siliguri Police Commissionerate, along with the Trishakti Corps Military Intelligence (Sukna Division), arrested another accused, Lalan Kumar Ojha (35), from the Putimari area in Bagdogra. During the raid, police recovered several fake birth and death certificates, forged Aadhaar and PAN cards and other incriminating documents from his residence.

The case, which has exposed deep-rooted corruption in the issuance of official documents, has so far led to the arrest of multiple individuals, including Nabajit Guha Niyogi, a worker of the Bangla Sahayata Kendra at the Naxalbari BDO Office, and Partha Saha, the main accused.

Currently, all the accused are in police remand for further investigation. Sources stated that police will interrogate Kundan in front of Partha. Police suspect more arrests may follow as they probe the wider network behind the scam.