Former West Bengal information and culture minister Indranil Sen was sent to 10 days of police custody on Thursday after being produced in court, while BJP workers protested outside his garden house in Singur over allegations involving a panchayat-funded road and blocked drainage channels.
Sen was arrested by Kolkata Police on Wednesday after appearing before the Enforcement Directorate at its CGO Complex in connection with a case related to the alleged sale of Durga Puja passes using UNESCO’s name. Police sources cited by Anandabazar said he was arrested for allegedly not cooperating with the investigation. The report said Sen had previously been questioned by the Enforcement Directorate and that searches had been conducted at multiple addresses.
On Thursday, BJP workers demonstrated outside Sen’s garden house, known as ‘Mohor’, in the Bagdanga Chhinamor gram panchayat area of Singur. Protesters raised allegations that money from the alleged puja-pass irregularities had been used to build the property and called for action against others they claimed were involved. These allegations have not been established by a court.
The protest also brought a local civic issue into the case. Some residents alleged that a drainage route serving agricultural land was blocked to facilitate construction of a road leading to the garden house. They further alleged that the road was built using panchayat funds and outside normal rules. The report did not cite an official panchayat document or an independent engineering assessment confirming those claims.
Ujjwal Khamaru, the BJP’s Singur mandal president, alleged that the road was constructed overnight with panchayat money and that an existing agricultural drainage channel had been filled in. He said surrounding fields could remain waterlogged during the monsoon because rainwater no longer had a clear outlet. Khamaru also alleged that a local Trinamool Congress leader close to former Singur MLA and minister Becharam Manna had helped arrange the land for the garden house.
The allegations connect a criminal investigation involving a former minister with questions about how village-level public works are planned, funded and monitored. In rural and peri-urban areas, drainage channels often serve both agricultural plots and nearby homes, making changes to access roads or embankments relevant beyond the boundaries of an individual property. However, the supplied report does not establish whether any government authority has opened a separate inquiry into the road or drainage allegations.
The original complaint in the puja-pass case was filed at Kolkata Police’s Bowbazar police station by Jaydeep Mukherjee, after which an FIR was registered. The Enforcement Directorate later began its investigation. Sen had approached the Calcutta High Court seeking anticipatory bail, but the application was rejected. He then challenged that order in the Supreme Court, where the matter remained pending in the account supplied by the source.
A hearing in Sen’s case was scheduled on Tuesday before Justice Dipankar Datta, but the judge recused himself citing personal reasons, creating further procedural uncertainty. The immediate next step is the police investigation during the 10-day custody period ordered by the court. The allegations concerning the Singur road, drainage channel and garden house remain claims by protesters and local residents unless supported by official records or findings from an authorised inquiry.
