Sacks with Rs 2.2 cr unearthed in field near TMC neta’s farmhouse

Kolkata: A day after the arrest of Baduria Municipality chairman Dipankar Bhattacharya, police unearthed a huge cache of cash, amounting to Rs 2 crore 24 lakh, buried in a jute field adjacent to his farmhouse at Batuldanga in North 24 Parganas.Police said several sacks and trolley bags stuffed with currency notes were recovered during the operation on Wednesday. All the seized notes were reportedly of Rs 500 denomination.Bhattacharya was arrested on Tuesday after police recovered Rs 80 lakh in cash and nearly 4,000 tarpaulin sheets, allegedly meant for govt relief distribution, from his residence at Punra in Baduria. On Tuesday, a Basirhat court remanded him in six days' police custody.A senior Basirhat district police official said the latest recovery was made based on information obtained during Bhattacharya's interrogation. "Investigators took the arrested chairman to the jute field, where he identified the spots where the cash was hidden underground," the official said.Police personnel were seen carrying sacks on their shoulders through the field as digging operations continued for several hours. Bundles of currency notes were found tightly packed inside multiple bags and trolley bags recovered from beneath the soil. Investigators also reportedly recovered several important documents from some of the bags.Police also deployed drones to scan the surrounding fields for any additional hidden cash or materials. A large contingent of Basirhat district police personnel was deployed at the site to maintain security.The recovered cash was later transported to the police station, though officials did not disclose the exact amount seized till Wednesday evening. Meanwhile, police also arrested Bhattacharya's personal secretary, Shamim Gazi, from the Batuldanga area on Wednesday.In another incident, Trinamool Congress zilla parishad member Ajit Saha — known to be a close aide of former state minister Jyotipriya Mallick — and his brother Sujit Kumar Saha were arrested on Tuesday night. A 7mm pistol, an airgun, a large cache of ammunition and Rs 27 lakh in cash were recovered during a raid at their residence in Maslandapur near Gobardanga. Cops also recovered 52 bottles of foreign liquor.Both the accused were remanded in police custody for seven days after being produced in a Barasat court on Wednesday afternoon.