Calcutta High Court lawyer ‘with BJP links’ arrested for fraud

Sources in the police said multiple documents seized from Sanatan Roy Chaudhuri established purported links between him and the saffron party

According to the police, Sanatan claimed to be a member of the state government’s standing council and a CBI counsel:Shutterstock

TT Bureau   |   Calcutta   |   07.07.21  :  Calcutta police on Monday nabbed a high court lawyer, Sanatan Roy Chaudhuri, on charges of fraudulent activities, forgery and impersonating as a public servant, close on the heels of the arrest of fake IAS officer Debanjan Deb.

Sources in Calcutta police said multiple documents seized from Sanatan established purported links between him and the BJP.

According to the police, Sanatan claimed to be a member of the state government’s standing council and a CBI counsel. Cops said he would travel in a car with a blue beacon and a CBI sticker. He was arrested on Monday from his residence in Sinthi by officers of the Gariahat police station on charges of trying to usurp a property worth crores in south Calcutta by flaunting his fake identity.

Police sources said a piece of paper that appeared to be a receipt for donation made to the BJP had been seized from Sanatan. The date on the receipt is August 10, 2014. A visiting card carrying the lotus symbol of the BJP has also been seized from him.. The card proclaimed Sanatan as a national executive member of the BJP and bore the address of its Delhi headquarters.

A photograph featuring the accused and BJP’s Bhowanipore candidate for the recently concluded Assembly polls, Rudranil Ghosh, a Trinamul turncoat, has also been recovered. Another picture showed Sanatan in the company of former state minister and Trinamul’s Bankura district chief Shyamal Santra.

Santra has denied knowing Sanatan. Sanatan had come from Calcutta and wanted to meet Santra, a request the latter had kept, he said.

Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh said: “Many people have become our members by giving missed calls. We don’t know all of them. What he did is unacceptable and everything happened under the state government’s nose.”

Rackets busted

East Burdwan police arrested eight people from Memari on Monday on allegations of extorting money from young men against fake promises of jobs in the Union ministry of road transport and highways.

Police claimed that more than a lakh in cash, seven mobile phones, and several documents including a purported letter of appreciation from governor Jagdeep Dhankhar along with his picture were seized from the accused. “We are trying to verify if the documents are genuine,” said Kalyan Sinha Roy, ASP (headquarters), East Burdwan.

Krishnagar police began a case against a woman, who allegedly extorted money from youths with fake job promises. Radharani Biswas, 43, claimed she was a senior CID officer. She has been charged with criminal breach of trust and cheating on the basis of complaints lodged by two unemployed youths who claimed to have paid her around Rs 10 lakh for providing them with jobs. Police have also brought similar charges against her husband Nripendra Biswas, her daughter and one of their close aides in the town.