Kolkata, June 5 (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 on Friday remanded to 14 days’ police custody by a lower court in Kolkata after being arrested by Kolkata Police on Thursday night.

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.

Biswas was booked under Section 308 (punishment for the offence of extortion) and Section 109 (punishment for attempt to murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, as well as Section 25 (punishments and penalties for offences related to the unlawful acquisition, possession, manufacture, sale, transfer, import or export of firearms and ammunition) and Section 27 (punishment for the unlawful use of firearms, prohibited weapons and ammunition) of the Arms Act, 1959.

Tollygunge was 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. However, he was defeated in the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly elections earlier this year.

After Swarup Biswas was produced at the lower court in Kolkata on Friday, Public Prosecutor Sourin Ghoshal argued that, since the accused was an influential person and the younger brother of a member of the previous state Cabinet, he needed to be interrogated further in police custody for 14 days.

The public prosecutor also informed the court that, according to the complaint lodged by the female make-up artist, the accused had extorted Rs 50,000 each from around 50 persons, including the complainant, by promising them jobs in the film industry.

The judge accepted the submissions of the public prosecutor and remanded Biswas to 14 days’ police custody.

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.

–IANS

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