Kolkata — Officers from the West Bengal Crime Investigation Department, working in tandem with the state Special Task Force, detained Sumit Roy, personal assistant to Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament Abhishek Banerjee, during a targeted afternoon operation at Banerjee’s Kalighat residence on Thursday. The high-profile apprehension occurred mere hours after the Supreme Court of India dismissed Roy’s application for anticipatory bail, eliminating the legal shield that had previously guarded him against custodial action in connection with a multi-million-rupee land dispute in West Midnapore.
A three-judge bench of the apex court led by Chief Justice Surya Kant, alongside Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana, vacated an earlier interim directive issued on August 6 that had temporarily restrained law enforcement from executing his arrest. The bench reached its verdict after considering submissions from Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who represented the state authorities, and senior defence counsel Gopal Sankaranarayanan. The top court’s decisive refusal upheld the position previously adopted by the Calcutta High Court in early August, clearing procedural obstacles for investigators seeking direct custodial access to the parliamentarian’s key confidant.
The underlying criminal investigation centres on allegations surrounding the fraudulent transfer and unlawful disposal of government-owned real estate in the Salboni region. According to prosecution submissions, public land tracts were systematically reclassified as private properties through falsified documentation and illicit deed registrations before being sold off. State investigators alleged before the courts that transactions running upwards of Rs 15 crore passed through bank accounts associated with Roy, pointing specifically to unverified cash deposits to assert that extensive custodial interrogation was essential to decipher the financial trail and track down the final destination of the proceeds.
Upon receiving intelligence confirming Roy’s presence at the Kalighat property, law enforcement teams moved in quickly to take him into custody. Following his apprehension, officers transported Roy directly to the state CID headquarters at Bhabani Bhaban in Alipore for initial paperwork and interrogation. Investigative authorities are scheduled to produce him before a district magistrate in Medinipur on Friday, where the prosecution intends to petition for formal police remand to facilitate deeper inquiry into the alleged conspiracy.
Throughout the judicial proceedings, legal representatives for Roy strongly contested the state’s characterization of events, maintaining that their client had consistently co-operated with every summons, appeared for repeated questioning rounds, and submitted to recorded interrogations. Nevertheless, the sudden raid and subsequent arrest at the residence of the Trinamool national general secretary have sent tremors through the state’s political corridors, escalating confrontations between ruling party figures and law enforcement agencies handling institutional fraud inquiries.
