Kolkata | Trinamool Congress leader Sabyasachi Dutta was arrested early on Tuesday from West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district on charges of extortion and criminal intimidation, and was remanded to police custody for eight days.
The former Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) mayor was nabbed from his residence at Raigachi based on a businessman's complaint that Dutta had demanded more than Rs 1 crore from him in 2018, a police officer said.
Even though Dutta denied the charges against him and said he was "ready to be hanged if they can prove I took even one rupee", people shouted "thief" at him and threw eggs, tomatoes and cow dung when he was being taken to court, as well as when he was leaving.
The Bidhannagar subdivisional court remanded Dutta to police custody for eight days.
Dutta had unsuccessfully contested the recent Assembly polls from the Barasat seat on a TMC ticket. He had joined the BJP in 2019 and returned to the Mamata Banerjee-led party a couple of years later.
His arrest came after former Bidhannagar MLA and a minister in the TMC government, Sujit Bose, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a civic body job scam case.
Reacting to Dutta's arrest, state minister and Bidhannagar MLA Sharadwat Mukherjee said, "The pillars of corruption and arrogance are being arrested one by one."
Appreciating the Bidhannagar Police's prompt action in the matter, he said "extortionists" of the TMC era were being apprehended on a war footing.
New Delhi | A day after an opposition INDIA bloc meeting stressed unity and better coordination among its partners, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday met senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi at her 10, Janpath residence and discussed ways to further strengthen the alliance.
Sources said the two leaders are learnt to have discussed the strategy between the two parties going forward after the opposition bloc meeting, and following an exodus of Trinamool MPs after the party's defeat to the BJP in the recent West Bengal polls.
While both the parties did not disclose details of the meeting, the sources said Banerjee is learnt to have stressed on opposition unity, and asserted that the INDIA bloc should work together in taking on the BJP on various issues, including those concerning the public.
At the opposition alliance meeting on Monday, Banerjee had urged all the constituents to forget the past and stand united.
Monday’s meeting focused on setting aside mutual bitterness, aligning with civil society movements, and acknowledging the Congress as the anchor of the opposition alliance, provided it shows a “large heart”.
The sources said Banerjee was emphatic in asserting that the leaders of the opposition alliance should avoid criticising each other, a marked departure from her previous efforts to carve out a bloc independent of the Congress.
After the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Banerjee had questioned the Congress' ability to lead the opposition bloc.
Tuesday’s meeting came after Banerjee and Gandhi, the chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party, met each other warmly with a hug during the opposition meeting held at the Constitution Club.
The Congress shared pictures of the bonhomie between the two leaders.
The meeting also followed a rebellion within the Trinamool, with several party MPs deciding to form a separate group and align with the ruling NDA.
A majority of Trinamool’s 80 MLAs have already formed a separate group led by Ritabrata Banerjee as the leader of opposition in the state Assembly.
This was the first closed-door meeting between Banerjee and Gandhi after Trinamool's defeat in the polls, and alleged attacks on party workers and MP Abhishek Banerjee after the elections.
