Former TMC MLA and first mayor of Bidhnanagar held by Kolkata police

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The former Trinamool Congress MLA and the first mayor of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, Sabyasachi Dutta, was arrested on Monday night (June 8, 2026) for allegedly extorting over ₹1.05 crore from a Salt Lake-based businessman in 2018.

According to the officials, a team from Bidhannagar North police station immediately conducted a search operation at Mr. Dutta’s residence in Rajarhat’s Raigachhi area, as per the complaint lodged by the businessman Mahdusudan Chakraborty. He was also later arrested.

“We have gathered some evidence against him during the raid. Mr. Chakraborty has alleged that Mr. Dutta extorted the money in 2018 and later had also been threatening for more,” said an officer.

However, Mr. Dutta denied all the allegations. While he was being taken for a medical examination, Mr. Dutta told the reporters, “All the allegations are fabricated. The complainant, Mr. Chakraborty, himself was arrested in connection with a forgery case, following which his family approached me to get him out.”

The accused leader is expected to be produced before the court on Tuesday afternoon.

Mr. Dutta was fielded by the Trinamool Congress in the recent state assembly election from the Barasat constituency but he lost to BJP’s Sankar Chatterjee. He had also served the Rajarhat New Town constituency twice as an MLA. He has also served as the first mayor of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation from 2015 to 2019.

Meanwhile, a group of locals also surrounded him and threw eggs, tomatoes and cow-dung at him when he was being taken to the court on Tuesday morning.

In October 2019, he switched to the BJP along with eight other Trinamool Congress MLAs after months of growing conflict with the party leadership. However, he returned to Trinamool Congress in 2021 ahead of the State assembly election.