HC grants interim bail to Bengal former IPS officer's husband

The Calcutta High Court on Monday granted interim bail to former West Midnapore district police chief Bharati Ghosh's husband M.A.V Raju till November 30, nearly two months after his arrest in an extortion case.

Raju was arrested on August 7 following a probe into alleged extortion and illegal exchange of banned notes for gold in West Midnapore district's Daspur.

His anticipatory bail plea was rejected by the High Court earlier.

A divisional bench of the Calcutta High Court directed Raju to furnish a bond of Rs 1 lakh to the court of Midnapore chief judicial magistrate with two sureties of the same amount as a condition for granting the interim bail.

He was also directed not to leave Kolkata without permission from the court and meet the investigating officers of the state CID once a week in the ongoing probe.

Raju's wife Bharati Ghosh, the principal accused in the Daspur extortion case, had approached the Supreme Court which had passed a restraining order on her arrest.

The Criminal Investigation Department had earlier arrested four police officers who had worked under Ghosh and the caretaker of an apartment in south Kolkata, suspected to be owned by her, in the case.

More than Rs 2.4 crore, important government documents and sealed liquor bottles were seized during raids at a number of flats in south Kolkata's Madurdaha.

A large amount of unaccounted cash was also seized from houses of several police officers named in the FIR.

The CID raids started following a case of extortion and criminal conspiracy was lodged in Daspur on February 1 after gold trader Chandan Majhi complained against some police officers in the district thought to be close to Ghosh.

Ghosh, once a favourite of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, reportedly fell from grace and sought voluntary retirement after she was transferred as Commandant of West Bengal Armed Police's 3rd Battalion. Her application was accepted.- IANS