ED Raids Ex‑Kolkata Police Officer’s Palace

Berhampore: An Enforcement Directorate (ED) team raided the ancestral palace of Kolkata former police deputy commissioner Santanu Sinha Biswas at Kandi on Friday morning. Officials, forced to wait for hours, later broke the locks to enter the property spread over four and a half bighas.

The palace was found fitted with imported Italian tiles and other high-end fittings. The ED had earlier questioned controversial labour contractor Daud Seikh of Kuli, Burwan, who had allegedly transferred ₹2.5 crore into the account of Biswas’s son. Seikh denied the charge, claiming he only received ₹2.7 lakh in three instalments for labour costs, and said he had been compelled to hand over a blank cheque.

ED suspects the ₹2.5 crore deposit was a cover to convert black money into white. Land and land reforms officials from Kandi block were summoned to assess the property, which includes a pond and mangroves.

Investigators believe syndicate members including Sona Pappu and other police officials held closed‑door meetings in the palatial building with Biswas. ED failed to trace his sister Gouri Sinha Biswas, vice‑chairperson of Kandi municipality, who lived in the palace and is now absconding.