The Trinamool Congress has faced another jolt after its leader, Sabyasachi Dutta, was arrested from his residence in the North 24 Parganas district on Monday night.
Dutta, who is a councillor and former chairman of Biddhanagar Municipal Corporation (BMC), was arrested on charges of extortion and criminal intimidation based on a complaint by a businessman named Madhusudan Chakraborty.
The allegations state that Datta extorted around ₹1.05 crore in cash from the businessman in 2018, in addition to subjecting him to mental torture and issuing death threats.
Biddhanagar North Police registered his arrest after raiding his multi-storeyed house in Rajarhat.
Dutta termed the allegations against him as "fabricated' and "false".
A prominent leader in the Bidhannagar area, Dutta had a brief stint in the BJP from 2019 to 2021 before switching back to the TMC.
His arrest came after former Bidhannagar MLA and minister Sujit Bose was taken into custody by the Enforcement Directorate in a cash-for-job scam case.
