The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of West Bengal Police have arrested a Trinamool Congress (TMC) councillor on charges of abducting a Tripura-based businessman.

The councillor, arrested late Thursday night, was identified as Milan Sardar and is the councillor from ward number 33 of Barasat Municipality in North 24 Parganas district. He was presented at a district court on Friday.

After his arrest by police, Trinamool Congress leadership announced Sardar’s expulsion from the party. The CID sleuths earlier had arrested six of his associates for the crime.

The abducted Tripura-based businessman had come to his relative’s place at Sodepur in North 24 Parganas district in the first week of September when he was abducted at gunpoint from a garage in the locality.

He was first kept at a farmhouse in Barasat and from there was shifted to a residential flat in a housing complex in the locality. The CID sleuths after taking over the investigation raided the residence and rescued the abducted businessman.

Soon, the six persons involved in the abduction were also arrested. In the face of interrogation, they admitted that Sardar was not only the main brain behind the abduction but also arranged for the two accommodations where the abducted businessman was kept.

However, Sardar went absconding then. Sources said that finally on Thursday night, the CID sleuths received information about him coming to the residence at Barasat.

A sudden raid was conducted by the investigating officials and finally, Sardar was arrested.

Reacting to the development, four-time Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member from the Barasat constituency and also the party’s organisational district president Dr Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said the party has decided to expel Sardar from the party. “We will not tolerate such activities at any cost,” she said.

Sardar was a worker at a local gold ornament shop in Barasat before joining politics. He became the councillor of Barasat Municipality in 2015. In the past also, there had been several complaints of financial irregularities against him.

*Agency Report