Ex-IPS officer moves Supreme Court for protection from WB cops after joining BJP
New Delhi : Former IPS Officer Bharati Ghosh, who joined BJP last week, has moved the Supreme Court seeking protection from any coercive action by the West Bengal police in new corruption cases registered against her.
Ghosh, once considered close to Mamata Banerjee, claimed police has registered seven FIRs against her including one lodged last week.
The apex court had on October 1, last year granted her protection from arrest in a case of alleged extortion and illegal exchange of banned notes for gold.
A bench of Justices A K Sikri and S Abdul Nazeer said that it will hear her application on February 19.
At the outset, senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for Ghosh said that seven FIRs have been lodged against her in an incident which dates back to 2016 in which allegedly gold was taken for currency.
He said police has been acting against her at different places and they should be restrained from taking any coercive action.
Kumar said that protection from arrest should be granted to her like it was given last year.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for West Bengal government opposed the plea and said she wants stay of arrest on a writ petition, which cannot be done.
He said Ghosh and her Personal Security Officer were involved in the gold extortion case and other cases and they both acted together.
Sibal said she was already granted protection from arrest in October, last year.
The bench said it will hear her plea on February 19 in detail on a non-miscellaneous day.
On February 4, Ghosh has joined BJP in the presence of Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and senior party leader Kailash Vijayvargiya alleging that "thugocracy" has replaced democracy in the West Bengal.
Ghosh, who was the West Midnapore superintendent of police for more than six years, was transferred as commandant of the third battalion of the state armed police on December 26, 2017. She resigned from service two days later.
She was once considered close to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and was also awarded a service medal on August 15, 2014.
Ghosh was transferred twice, once by the Election Commission before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and the second time by the state itself before the 2016 Assembly elections.
She was, however, reinstated as West Midnapore SP as soon as the elections got over on both occasions.
An arrest warrant was issued against Ghosh in February, 2018 in connection with an extortion case registered at Daspur police station in West Midnapore district, following her resignation.
The CID, probing cases relating to alleged extortion and misconduct against Ghosh, had also conducted raids at various properties, including a house in Kolkata that belongs to her husband M A V Raju.
A few police officers of inspector and sub-inspector ranks have been arrested by the CID in connection with the probe.
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Bank account in Ramgarh tracked for fraudulent fund transactions across 24 states, 4 arrested
Ramgarh (Jharkhand) (PTI): Jharkhand police on Thursday said it has unearthed a network of interstate cyber frauds and arrested four miscreants for fraudulent transactions through a bank account in Ramgarh district after complaints of 274 suspected transactions in 24 states.
The states where complaints for fraudulent transactions were registered included Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.
The action followed inputs received through 'Samanvaya portal', a centralised, web-based platform launched by the Union Home Ministry to curb cybercrime.
"We arrested four cyber miscreants after a current account with Kuju (Ramgarh) branch of the State Bank of India was found to have registered suspected financial transactions in 24 states with the help of the Pratibimba portal of the Home Ministry through the Samanvaya portal," Ramgarh Superintendent of Police Mukesh Kumar Lunayat said.
During the probe, police found that the account was opened under the MSME Udyam Registration scheme in the name of Shree Ganesh Enterprises, he said.
The account had been linked to as many as 274 complaints from different states related to cyber fraud and illegal fund transfers.
The registered proprietors of the enterprise were identified as Rahul Gupta (37), Ravi Kumar Verma (34), and Ajay Sharma (33), all residents of Ramgarh district, a statement from the Ramgarh police said.
During interrogation, Rahul Gupta and Ravi Kumar Verma revealed that they had opened multiple current accounts at the behest of Ritesh Agrawal alias Munna (40) and Sonu Kumar Jha (34).
They admitted receiving Rs 1.2 lakh in exchange for facilitating the opening of these accounts.
"The accused further confessed to sharing OTPs, activating mobile banking services, and handing over control of the accounts to the main operators through WhatsApp and Telegram groups. These accounts were then allegedly used to route fraudulent transactions.
Police said mobile data analysis of the accused led to the recovery of crucial digital evidence, including details of SIM cards, bank accounts, passbooks, ATM cards, QR code scanners, Aadhaar cards, and PAN cards shared through messaging platforms.
A total of four accused have been arrested so far and sent to judicial custody.
A case has been registered at the Cyber Crime Police Station under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023 and Sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Further investigation is underway, the police said.
