Son of ex-TMC MLA arrested for poll violence, snatching lottery ticket: Police

Tirthankar Ghosh is accused of allegedly throwing bombs at the residence of Joy Saha, a local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader in Panihati

The West Bengal police on Saturday night arrested Tirthankar Ghosh, the defeated Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate at North 24 Parganas district’s Panihati seat in the April assembly polls and son of the seat’s former incumbent Nirmal Ghosh in multiple criminal cases, officials aware of the matter said.

“Tirthankar Ghosh was arrested from the Dakshineswar area for his alleged involvement in a 2021 post-assembly poll violence case and also for allegedly snatching a prize-winning lottery ticket from a Panihati hotel owner’s driver in November 2024. He is being produced before the Barrackpore court today,” a district police officer said on Monday afternoon, requesting anonymity.

“Sushanta Sarkar, the hotel owner, has also been arrested. His former driver, Partha Sarkar, alleged that Sushanta Sarkar took him to Nirmal Ghosh’s home on November 11, 2024, where they snatched a Dear Lottery ticket from him. The driver claimed the ticket had won a prize of ₹1 crore. He also alleged they threatened to kill him if he lodged a police complaint,” the officer added.

Partha Sarkar, a resident of Hooghly district’s Mogra, lodged a police complaint last week against Nirmal and Tirthankar Ghosh and his former employer Sushanta Sarkar.

“Sushanta Sarkar took me to Nirmal Ghosh’s home saying the MLA would help me get the money from the lottery company. After we reached Ghosh’s home they threatened me, brandished a gun and snatched the ticket from my shirt pocket. They got the money,” Sarkar said on Monday.

In the post-poll violence case, Tirthankar Ghosh is accused of allegedly throwing bombs at the residence of Joy Saha, a local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader in Panihati, after the TMC won the Bengal elections.

“Tirthankar Ghosh is a petty criminal. He not only attacked my home with bombs but also filed false charges against me and got me arrested in 2021. Justice will prevail now,” Saha said.

Nirmal Ghosh moved a petition in the Calcutta high court through a lawyer on Monday afternoon seeking legal protection. The former MLA, however, could not be traced by police and his house was found locked.

Nirmal Ghosh is also an accused in the 2024 rape and murder of a trainee doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, but he has not been questioned by the state police at that time.

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The victim’s parents alleged that he and some local TMC leaders hurriedly took the body from the hospital after the post-mortem examination and cremated it at the Panihati crematorium while pretending to help the family. The Central Bureau of Investigation is freshly probing the case under court orders.

Ratna Debnath, the victim’s mother, defeated Tirthankar Ghosh at the Panihati seat after the BJP fielded her.

“If the son has been arrested, the father will be arrested too. Nobody can get away with crime. Nirmal Ghosh hurriedly cremated my daughter to hide evidence,” Debnath said on Monday.

On July 10, when the police could not find Nirmal Ghosh to question him in the lottery ticket case, he went to a hotel on the east Kolkata outskirts to meet the rebel TMC leaders led by Ritabrata Banerjee.

When asked, Ghosh said, “They will decide it.”

Banerjee however said Ghosh was not invited to the meeting.

“I asked him to tell the name of the person who invited him or provide the number of the phone from which he claimed to have received a call. Inducting Nirmal Ghosh is not at all our priority. We have reservations against him,” Banerjee told the media on July 10.