Former West Bengal IPS officer Bharati Ghosh on Monday formally joined the BJP, a year after the Criminal Investigation Department in Kolkata raided premises belonging to her and her close aides to recover imported liquor brands and Rs 2.5 crore.
Once a close confidante of West Bengal Chief Minister, Ghosh came under the radar of the CID after one Chandan Majhi filed an official complaint alleging extortion and criminal conspiracy in February last year.
Ghosh joined the BJP in the company of senior BJP functionary including Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Kailash Vijayvargiya. Welcoming her into the saffron party, Vijayvargiya tweeted, “The BJP family continues to grow in West Bengal. I welcome former IPS officer Bharati Ghosh to the party.”
The CID had recently termed her absconder in a case related to extortion and criminal conspiracy while her husband Raju continues to remain in custody.
In February last year, the CID had raided the house of Ghosh along with the residence of one of her close aides, recovering many government files and other documents of West Midnapore district.
The recovered items also included a large number of arms licence applications, a large number of verification rolls of different candidates seeking employment and 39 litres of imported liquor in 57 sealed bottles.
Soon after the raids, Ghosh had released a voice message from an undisclosed location alleging conspiracy against her.
Ghosh, a promotee IPS officer, had served the violence-hit West Midnapore as the district’s SP.
Mamata Banerjee was reportedly very fond of her and Ghosh allegedly used her proximity to the chief minister to enhance her clout in the political circle. At one event, she had addressed Banerjee as her mother.
She was also very close to Mukul Roy, another former loyalist of Banerjee, before he too joined the BJP.
Incidentally, Roy’s decision to join the BJP too had come after the CBI had grilled him in the Sharada chit fund case.
