Police in North 24 Parganas district, West Bengal, on Wednesday recovered four trolley bags and one sack packed with cash after digging up farmland owned by Dipankar Bhattacharya, chairman of the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC)-controlled Baduria Municipality, who was arrested on corruption charges earlier this week. The total fresh recovery is suspected to be worth a couple of crores, according to police, with counting still under way at the time of filing.

The Arrest and Initial Recovery

Dipankar Bhattacharya was detained from a hotel on Monday night, when police seized ₹80 lakh in cash from his possession. He was produced before a district court on Tuesday, which remanded him to police custody. During subsequent interrogation, Bhattacharya reportedly confessed that additional cash had been concealed beneath the soil of his farmland, prompting investigators to take him to the site on Wednesday afternoon.

What Was Found and Where

Upon excavating the farmland, police unearthed four trolley bags and one sack, all filled with cash. The recovery adds to a growing list of seizures linked to Bhattacharya: earlier, authorities had also recovered approximately 4,000 government tarpaulins from a local TMC office in Baduria and from a garden house owned by him.

Corruption Charges Against Bhattacharya

According to police, two distinct corruption allegations have been levelled against Bhattacharya. The first relates to the receipt of commissions for housing allotments under 'Banglar Bari', the state's own housing scheme introduced under the previous TMC government. The second involves the alleged extortion of local residents, particularly traders in Baduria. Complaints against him were filed at the local police station separately by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and police acted on those complaints to make the arrest.

Political Fallout

BJP legislator Sajal Ghosh claimed the farmland recovery exposed the depth of corruption during the previous TMC administration in West Bengal. 'If such a huge amount can be recovered from the possession of the chairman of a district-level municipality, it is well imaginable what kind of money was earned by the former ministers and the top leaders of the previous ruling party,' Ghosh said. This comes amid broader scrutiny of municipal-level governance in the state, where allegations of kickbacks in welfare scheme allotments have surfaced repeatedly in recent years.

What Happens Next

Police are continuing to count the recovered cash and are expected to formally quantify the total seizure. Investigators are also likely to examine the paper trail linking the funds to the Banglar Bari scheme and the alleged extortion network. The case is being closely watched as a test of how far accountability reaches within local-body politics in West Bengal.