BJP leader’s father, friend under lens

Kolkata: After Juhi Chowdhury, her father Rabindra Narayan Chowdhury, and another Bharatiya Janata Party youth leader have come under the scanner of the criminal investigation department (CID) in the baby trafficking case in North Bengal. Mr Chowdhury is absconding now.

He was already removed from the BJP state committee by the party on Wednesday following his daughter’s arrest by the state detective agency.

According to the CID, Mr Chowdhury had played a crucial role in the racket through his contacts, courtesy to his political clout.

He, however, never came to the front in the day-to-day functioning of the racket while his daughter took the lead covering every aspect of the rehabilitation centre, Ashroy, ran by arrested school teacher Chandana Chakraborty in Jalpaiguri.

The investigators suspect that Mr Chowdhury might have taken shelter at a different location unlike Juhi who was found hiding along the Indo-Nepal border.

They also cross-examined Juhi and Ms Chakraborty at Pintail village in Darjeeling to get more details. Meanwhile, the CID came across the name of a young Bharatiya Janata Party leader from a district in North Bengal who is also Juhi’s friend. Like Mr Chowdhury he has also gone into hiding.

In another development, the CID has made Ms Chakraborty’s sister-in-law Rita Barui a witness in the case. She worked in Ms Chakraborty’s another organisation — North Bengal People’s Development Centre — at a senior position looking after the administrative section.

Ms Barui recorded her statement before a magistrate at the district court in Jalpaiguri on Wednesday.