The South 24 Parganas district administration is considering a reinvestigation into how the party office of All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) general secretary and Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee came to be built on the land of a bakery that was gutted by fire in late 2014, officials said on 20 July. The five-storey structure in Amtala was partially demolished by the district administration before the Calcutta High Court intervened with an interim stay.

The Demolition and Court Stay

The district administration commenced demolition of the Amtala party office on Saturday afternoon, with work continuing through Sunday morning. The exercise was halted after a single-judge special bench of the Calcutta High Court, comprising Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury, granted an interim stay on further demolition following an urgent Sunday afternoon hearing. The matter will now be placed before a regular bench for a final decision.

According to a senior district official, demolition was initiated after it was established that the five-storey building had been constructed without a proper building sanction plan — a clear violation of local construction norms.

The 2014 Bakery Fire and Land Ownership Trail

At the heart of the reinvestigation push is the suspicious fire that destroyed the bakery on the same plot in the closing months of 2014. A senior South 24 Parganas district official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said multiple complaints have emerged — from local residents as well as from within the district administration itself — alleging that the fire was a deliberate act of sabotage intended to facilitate illegal land acquisition.

'There had been several complaints that the bakery fire was actually sabotage with the intention of illegally grabbing that land. So, in view of the allegations, the district administration feels that there is a requirement for re-investigation on how the fire happened, how the ownership of the land changed and subsequently fresh construction was made on that land,' the official said.

A detailed report on the matter is expected to be sent to the West Bengal state secretariat shortly, which will take the final call on whether a formal reinvestigation is ordered.

BJP's Allegations and Complaint Filed

Local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Abhijit Das, also known as Bobby, pointed out that no construction beyond G+3 floors is permitted in that area without special approval from the zilla parishad. The Amtala party office is a G+4 structure, he noted.

Das alleged that after the bakery fire, the land was purchased by a corporate entity called Leaps & Bounds, after which fresh construction was completed 'at an unimaginable pace.' He argued that no proper investigation was conducted during the previous government's tenure and expressed hope that the current administration would revisit all aspects of the case.

On Sunday, Das also lodged a formal complaint at Nodakhali police station in South 24 Parganas against Abhishek Banerjee — the nephew of former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee — alleging corruption in the distribution of financial relief following Cyclone Amphan in 2020. He alleged that approximately ₹30 crore was embezzled in the Budge Budge-II block through the creation of fake documents.

What Happens Next

The Calcutta High Court's regular bench will determine whether the demolition may proceed. Simultaneously, the state secretariat in Kolkata will decide on the reinvestigation request. This case comes amid heightened scrutiny of TMC-linked properties and land dealings in West Bengal following the change in political climate. The dual track — judicial and administrative — means the outcome could take weeks to crystallise.