Calcutta police detective department has taken up the probe against Rakhal Bera, arrested earlier for his alleged links in a job racket where a complainant said he was falsely “sold” a job in the state irrigation department in 2019.

BJP MLA and leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari was the irrigation minister then. Bera, claimed to be Suvendu’s aide, was arrested on June 5 following a complaint by Sujit Dey of Ashokenagar in North 24-Parganas.

Police said Dey alleged that between July and September 2019, Bera and one Chanchal Nandi of Contai held a purported government job camp inside a flat in Block B of the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics Cooperative Housing Society on Manicktala Road. Dey alleged the duo took Rs 2 lakh from him, but didn’t give him a job.

So far, officers of Manicktala police station were probing the case. The detective department at Lalbazar will now investigate the case, drawn up under the sections of cheating, forgery, fraud and criminal conspiracy in February 2021.

Police officers said Bera’s interrogation and the probe so far revealed many persons were involved and the racket’s tentacles were spread in various south Bengal districts.

The BJP and Bera’s defence lawyer have called the case politically motivated.

Senior BJP leaders said this was an attempt to frame Suvendu on charges of corruption and that the party would fight it out legally and politically.