Indranil Sen arrested in Kolkata Puja pass case after ED questioning
The former West Bengal tourism minister was picked up outside the ED's Kolkata office and arrested by city police over Durga Puja preview ticket sales allegedly marketed under UNESCO's name.
Former West Bengal tourism and culture minister Indranil Sen was arrested by Kolkata Police late Wednesday, hours after he turned up for questioning by the Enforcement Directorate in the Puja pass case. Police will seek his custody when he is produced in court on Thursday.
Sen had gone to the ED's Kolkata office for a money laundering probe. After at least four hours of questioning, police say, a Detective Department team detained him at the CGO complex at around 5 pm and took him to Lal Bazar, where he was later arrested.
Police sources say Sen skipped their earlier summons. He went to the Calcutta High Court, which rejected his anticipatory bail plea, and then approached the Supreme Court, where the matter has not yet been heard. Officers say a tip-off about his ED appearance let them move in.
The case began with an FIR filed in June against Sen, his wife Madhuchanda Sen and officials of MassArt Society, following a complaint by Jaideep Mukherjee. The allegation: the group sold high-priced Durga Puja preview tickets and privileged donor passes while falsely claiming a UNESCO partnership. The charges include cheating, forgery, criminal breach of trust and conspiracy.
The money trail is still being traced. A senior police officer said no precise figure can yet be confirmed, though the complaint puts the amount at around Rs 34 crore. The ED says over one lakh preview tickets were issued in 2023 and 2024 alone, and that it found nearly Rs 30 lakh sent to former chief minister Mamata Banerjee, which Sen described as royalty. The agency raided 15 premises in September.
Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said both agencies had been investigating for a long time and must have evidence, and that the BJP's door is closed to Sen. For festival-goers, the case is a reminder to check who is actually behind a pricey pass before paying for it.
Source: The Indian Express
