The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Kolkata Police Deputy Commissioner (DC) Shantanu Sinha Biswas on Thursday night after a 10-hour interrogation in connection with alleged multi-crore land transactions that came to light weeks before the recent Assembly elections, officials said.
“Sinha Biswas has been summoned five times since mid-April, but has not turned up at the Salt Lake City Enforcement Directorate office. He was arrested after he refused to disclose the source of huge cash transactions and details of the properties he owns,” said an official in the directorate who requested anonymity.
The ED suspects that Biswas is linked to city-based real estate businessman Joy S Kamdar, who was arrested in April, and Biswajit Poddar, who is alleged to be a land grabber, extortionist and politically connected.
Kamdar’s arrest followed a 20-hour search operation at the residence of Sinha Biswas, who was assigned to guard then Prime Minister Mamata Banerjee at the time.
While Kamdar was in police custody, Poddar was on the run and a probation notice was issued in his name.
After Kamdar’s arrest, Deputy Public Prosecutor Dheeraj Kumar Trivedi, representing the ED, told Kolkata’s Bankshal court that chats found on two of his personal phones indicated huge hawala transactions.
Poddar underwent an emergency department examination after the gang war in the Kankolia Road area of Ghariat, south Kolkata, in February. On April 1, emergency crews conducted searches at Poddar’s home.
