Shyamal Adak, former chairman of Haldia municipality known for being close to Trinamul turncoat and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, was on early Sunday arrested by police for alleged corruption.
Insiders said Adak followed in the footsteps of Adhikari, now Bengal’s leader of the Opposition.
“When Suvendu switched parties in December 2020, Shyamal resigned as chairman of Haldia municipality and left Trinamul to join the BJP shortly,” said a source.
Haldia port and Haldia industrial area were under the party jurisdiction of then Trinamul leader Adak during the tenure of former CPM MP Laxman Seth. Sources said Adak, as chairman, was widely rumoured to have committed corruption in tenders floated for several jobs.
Sources said a businessman filed a tender-related complaint against Adak at Bhavanipur police station in Haldia in late September. A special investigation team (SIT) was formed for probe. Based on the complaint, Adak was called to the police station for questioning on municipality corruption, following which he applied for anticipatory bail at high court. He received temporary protection, provided he cooperated with the investigation.
On Saturday night, Sutahata police station summoned Adak for questioning, after which he was arrested past midnight. Haldia SDPO Rahul Pandey said: “Adak is arrested on charges of tender corruption in the municipality.”
“He was produced in a Haldia court and given a day’s jail custody. He will be produced in a special court in Tamluk on Monday,” said additional public prosecutor Rajdoot Maity.
Bengal logs 3 fresh covid cases
Bengal on Sunday reported three Covid-19 infections, four recoveries and no death.
The state has at present 47 active patients — 38 in home isolation and nine at hospitals.
According to a state government bulletin, the recovery rate was 98.98 per cent and the mortality rate 1.02 per cent on Sunday.
On a day 4,195 samples were tested, the positivity rate was 0.07%.
Since the pandemic broke out in 2020, the state has 21,18,523 patients and 20,96,945 of them recovered completely.
So far, 21,531 people have died of Covid in Bengal.
