Two state govt officials held, BJP MP to be quizzed

Kolkata: In a major breakthrough on Friday night, in the child trafficking racket case in North Bengal, the criminal investigation department (CID) arrested two state government officials for their prominent role, and a BJP MP has come under its scanner for her suspected links.

The two arrested accused are Mrinal Ghosh, the district child protection officer (DCPO) of Darjeeling and Debashish Chandra, a doctor who is also a member of the child welfare committee (Darjeeling).

The criminal investigation department arrested them after grilling them over several hours at Pintail village where they were summoned.

DIG (CID) Nishat Parvez said that Dr Chandra was a visiting doctor at Bimala Sishu Griha and Ashroy which were run by school teacher Chandana Chakraborty, who was recently arrested.

The wife of Mr Ghosh, Sasmita Ghosh, who is also the DCPO (Jalpaiguri) was questioned by the CID too. But she was let go later.

Ms Ghosh came under the scanner for her suspected links with the racket and was even showcaused by district magistrate (Jalpaiguri) Rachna Bhagat recently. Meanwhile, the CID found the Bharatiya Janata Party MP’s name after cross-examining Ms Chakraborty with another arrested accused Juhi Chowdhury.

It plans to summon the MP for questioning at CID headquarters in Bhawani Bhavan, sources revealed.