Kolkata: TMCP leader held for allegedly demanding extortion money for college admission
Kolkata, Jul 2 (IBNS): Days after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee directed her police to uproot extortion rackets from state campuses, the Kolkata Police on Sunday midnight raided at least 17 locations across the city and arrested a leader of ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC)'s students' wing Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP) for allegedly demanding extortion money from students for college admission, officials said.
According to reports, former general secretary of TMCP ruled Seth Anandram Jaipuria College's students' union and presently a leader of north Kolkata TMCP, Tetan Saha alias Papai, was arrested by city police's Anti Rowdy Squad (ARS) from his residence at Maicktala's Sisir Bhaduri Sarani area in north part of the city.
The arrest student leader will be produced before a city court on Monday.
"Earlier on Saturday, we launched two Whatsapp numbers (8420758994 / 6290961121) and an email id (KolkataPolice120@gmail.com) for lodging college extortion related complaints and till Saturday midnight, we received as many as 15 complaints," a senior official of Kolkata Police told IBNS.
"After looking into those allegations, we identified 17 persons, including students, student leaders and non-teaching staffers of few city colleges, in connection with the campus extortion rackets and carried out overnight raids on Sunday at the houses of the accused persons," he said.
Police also raided the house of a Group-D employee of north Kolkata's Surendranath College, Rahul Ghosh, and seized several college admission related documents from the premise while the man is absconding.
"We have seized several admission related documents, including admission forms, Higher Secondary (HS) mark sheets and admit cards, from the residence of Surendranath College's Group-D staff Rahul Ghosh, who fled from his house before our raid," the official added.
"After raiding 17 locations, we arrested only Tetan Saha as other accused persons are absconding and we have recovered several documents from the locations," the official added.
Earlier on Friday, acting on specific allegations, police arrested two students of north Kolkata's Sris Chandra College and south city's Prafulla Chandra College for demanding extortion from students for managing admission in those institutes.
These four students are reportedly the active members of TMCP.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday morning made a surprise visit to south Kolkata's Asutosh College and observed the ongoing admission process there.
(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)
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