Ex-TMC leader Bibhas Chandra Adhikari, arrested in Noida for “running a fake police station”, has allegedly been found to have operated a similar set-up in Kolkata.

Adhikari, a former Trinamool Block President from Nalhati in Birbhum and once under the CBI and ED scanner in the teachers’ recruitment scam, was picked up along with his son and four others for allegedly running the “International Police & Crime Investigation Bureau” in Noida’s Sector 70 on Saturday night. Police said the group allegedly posed as government officials to extort money.

Investigations by Kolkata police revealed that in Kolkata’s Beleghata area, Adhikari had allegedly rented two flats on CIT Road where he displayed boards reading “Investigation of Social Justice”, “Interpol” and “Police”. He would allegedly arrive in a car with a blue beacon with four armed guards.

Police claimed he owns significant assets, including an Ayurvedic college in Suri, a B.Ed college in Krishnapur, and houses in Kolkata and Delhi. Adhikari was removed from his Trinamool post before the 2021 elections, later forming the “Bhartiya Arya Samaj” party. However, he was seen sharing the stage with TMC leaders in 2024 and was accused of taking money in exchange for job promises in the teachers’ recruitment scam.

Sources said he was considered close to jailed former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee. His Krishnapur ashram housed an office using the letterhead of the “National Bureau of Social Investigation and Social Justice.” The CBI questioned him multiple times in 2023 in the recruitment case.