Ex-TMC minister Shyamaprasad Mukherjee, who joined BJP ahead of Assembly polls, arrested on graft charge

Bankura: Former West Bengal minister Shyamaprasad Mukherjee, who had joined the BJP ahead of this year’s Assembly elections in the state, was arrested on Sunday for allegedly being involved in financial irregularities of nearly Rs 10 crore, an officer said. The former Trinamool Congress MLA from Bishnupur was apprehended following an investigation into allegations of misappropriation of money related to e-tendering and other charges when he was chairman of the local civic body in 2020, the police officer said. “An investigation was carried out by the SDPO, Bishnupur into the allegations of financial irregularities of Rs 9.91 crore. Mukherjee was arrested after he failed to give satisfactory answers to queries,” Bankura SP Dhritiman Sarkar told PTI. The BJP’s Bishnupur organisational district president Sujit Agasthi claimed that Mukherjee had joined the saffron party before the Assembly elections in the state but he was not actively involved. “The allegations against him are of the time when he was in Trinamool Congress. Has the government woken up now?” the BJP leader asked.