Suvendu Adhikari, Brother Accused of Stealing Relief Material

The BJP leader and his brother have been accused of stealing relief material worth lakhs from a municipality.

File image of ex-TMC minister Suvendu Adhikari.

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter)

A police case has been filed against West Bengal BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari and his brother, Soumendu Adhikari, for allegedly stealing relief material worth several lakhs from a municipality office in the state's Purba Medinipur district, reported NDTV.

Soumendu Adhikari was the former chief of Kanthi Municipality from where this alleged loot has taken place.

A case was registered on the complaint of Ratnadip Manna, a member of the Kanthi Municipal Administrative Board, at Kanthi Police Station.

“On 29 May 2021 at 12:30 pm as per direction of Suvendu Adhikari and his brother and former Municipal Chief Soumendu Adhikari of Kanthi Municipality, government tarpaulin whose estimated value is around lakhs of rupees, was taken away from municipality office godown by forcefully and illegally opening locks,” Manna's complaint, dated 1 June, read.

He also said that BJP leaders used armed central security for their protection during the theft, said the NDTV report.

The complaint comes the same day as a close aide of Adhikari, Rakhal Bera, was arrested in an alleged cheating case by Kolkata Police.

He is charged with duping a person with promise of a job in the Irrigation and Waterways Ministry in 2019. The complainant alleged he paid ₹2 lakh but did not get the promised job.

Adhikari was formerly in the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and was a heavy-weight in the party run by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

He beat Banerjee by about 1,200 votes in the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly elections.

(With inputs from NDTV)