Kolkata, June 4 (IANS) Swarup Biswas, brother of former West Bengal Sports Minister Aroop Biswas and an accused in the vandalism case at the Yuva Bharati Krirangan in Salt Lake during Lionel Messi’s GOAT India Tour on December 13 last year, was taken into custody by Kolkata Police on Thursday night.

According to information available from sources within the state police, the arrest was made in connection with allegations of extortion involving technicians associated with the Bengali film industry.

Sources aware of the development said that Swarup Biswas was arrested following a complaint lodged by a female make-up artist associated with an organisation of make-up artists working in Bengali film, television and OTT productions based in Tollygunge on the southern outskirts of Kolkata.

Tollygunge had been represented in the West Bengal Assembly by Swarup Biswas’s elder brother, Aroop Biswas, a Trinamool Congress legislator for four consecutive terms between 2006 and 2026.

The complainant alleged that Swarup Biswas conspired to ensure that she did not receive any make-up-related assignments for the past two years. She also accused him of threatening her on several occasions when his elder brother was serving as the sports and power minister in the previous Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal Cabinet.

In her complaint, she further alleged that Swarup Biswas extorted several lakhs of rupees from her through intimidation and threats.

Based on the complaint, New Alipore Police Station initiated an investigation and subsequently arrested him on Thursday night.

Swarup Biswas had served as the president of the Federation of Cine Technicians and Workers of Eastern India in Kolkata for a long period after the Trinamool Congress came to power in West Bengal.

He had long faced allegations of extorting members of the organisation he headed. On Thursday night, he was taken into custody by Kolkata Police and will be produced before a lower court in Kolkata on Friday.

Aroop Biswas, the former state power minister in the previous Mamata Banerjee-led Cabinet, was a four-time Trinamool Congress legislator from the Tollygunge Assembly constituency in South 24 Parganas district.

However, in the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly polls, he was defeated by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Papiya Adhikari, an actress-turned-politician, by a margin of over 6,000 votes.

–IANS

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