Kolkata: Arrested Trinamool neta Tirthankar Ghosh was paraded by cops through parts of Sodepur and Panihati on Saturday as part of their investigation, with residents shouting “chor, chor” (“thief, thief”) at him.Tirthankar, a CIC member of Panihati municipality and son of former TMC MLA Nirmal Ghosh, was arrested last week in connection with alleged post-poll violence following the 2021 Bengal assembly elections. He is in police custody.Police said his name figures in multiple cases linked to the 2021 violence. He and his father are also accused of extorting money from a driver who had won a lottery worth several crore rupees.Known locally as “Puchida”, Tirthankar entered politics under his father’s patronage. Locals have for years accused him of land grabbing and encroachment, including of the Amarabati grounds in Sodepur, though no action was taken at the time.Tirthankar contested the Panihati assembly seat on a TMC ticket this year after his father opted out of the race, but lost to BJP’s Ratna Debnath, mother of the RG Kar Medical College rape-murder victim.Police also linked Tirthankar to the April 18, 2021 bomb attack on BJP neta Joy Saha’s residence in Panihati, adding that he had been absconding for nearly two months before his arrest.
