CID officers spent three days for arrest....Monk disguise & puja before Juhee arrest

Juhee being taken to court. Picture by Passang Yolmo

TT, March 1: Two CID officers had posed as a monk and a nun and spent three days at a village temple to keep watch on the house from where BJP leader Juhee Chowdhury was arrested, sources said.

CID sources had yesterday said they had tracked down Juhee's cellphone tower location to Kharibari in Darjeeling near the Nepal border. Juhee has been accused of speaking to party seniors Roopa Ganguly and Kailash Vijayvargiya for "clearances" to the Jalpaiguri orphanage from where babies were allegedly sold illegally to childless couples abroad and in the country.

"When we came to know that Juhee had been staying at her relative's house in Kharibari, two officers visited the area," said a CID officer.

Juhee had been untraceable for 10 days before her arrest last evening.

"The sleuths noticed that the area had several temples.... Instead of forcing their way into the house where Juhee was staying, they decided to wait and spend three days at one of the temples to get more leads. They posed as a monk and a nun to keep a watch on the house," he added.

According to the officer, several people sought the blessings of the sleuths posing as the monk and nun and even invited them home.

"The officers had won the confidence of the villagers. Juhee's relatives had also invited them to visit the temple in their courtyard," the police source said. "They entered the house on Tuesday afternoon, but could not see Juhee anywhere. The sleuths started performing a puja and the BJP leader came out only in the evening. The moment she stepped out, our officers caught her," the source added.

CID officers said Juhee had introduced Chandana Chakraborty, the owner of the orphanage, to several childless couples.

"Chandana has told us that Juhee played a role in helping her get clients for the babies they used to sell from the orphanage," an officer said.

Juhee was today produced in the chief judicial magistrate's court in Jalpaiguri and remanded in 12 days' police custody.

Akhil Biswas, the lawyer representing Juhee, said she was not involved with the NGO run by Chandana.

"She had approached Juhee for some help so that she could run the organisation properly. There is no logic behind her arrest," Biswas said.

During the hearing, Biswas appealed that he be allowed to be present during Juhee's questioning. "The court accepted the appeal," he said.

Mithu Chowdhury, Juhee's mother, was present in the court but refused to speak to the media.

Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh today said the CID had deliberately delayed the arrest of Juhee and alleged a "political conspiracy".

"I wonder why there had been a deliberate delay in Juhee's arrest. I can smell a bigger political conspiracy in this by Trinamul.... She and the main accused have been terrorised to drop names of senior BJP leaders," Ghosh said in the Assembly today.