Kolkata, Oct 29: A court on Thursday remanded former West Bengal minister Indranil Sen to police custody till November 10 in a case of alleged financial irregularities involving Durga Puja preview shows and the sale of passes, rejecting his bail plea.
The singer-politician was arrested by Kolkata Police on Wednesday in connection with alleged financial irregularities by MassArt Society, with which Sen and his wife, Madhuchhanda, were alleged to be associated.
The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s court rejected Sen’s bail plea after hearing arguments from the prosecution and his counsel.
Seeking Sen’s police remand for questioning, the prosecution claimed he was directly involved in the alleged financial irregularities as a minister in the previous TMC government.
Sen’s lawyer claimed that the accusations were false and that he was innocent and that the complaint against him was politically motivated.
The Calcutta High Court on October 15 rejected his anticipatory bail plea in a cheating case related to the city’s Durga Puja festivities.
Sen, who served as cultural affairs and tourism minister in the previous Trinamool Congress government, was accused of commercialising Durga Puja by selling high-priced tickets for preview shows.
He was named in an FIR lodged at Bowbazar police station following a complaint by Joydip Mukherjee, who alleged that Sen and the organisation had cheated people in the name of religion between 2022 and 2024 by claiming an association with UNESCO to sell preview-show tickets.
While rejecting Sen’s anticipatory bail plea, the Calcutta High Court had observed that office-bearers of MassArt Society as well as directors and persons responsible for the day-to-day operations of entities were awarded tenders by the Information and Cultural Affairs Department during his tenure as minister.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also questioned Sen over financial transactions linked to MassArt.
He was arrested by Kolkata Police on Wednesday evening after emerging from the ED office at the CGO Complex in Salt Lake, where he had undergone another round of questioning in the matter. (PTI)
