Kolkata, June 24 (IANS) A day after the recovery of over 3 kilograms of gold jewellery worth over Rs 4.39 crore from her house, Nadia Zilla Parishad member and Trinamool Congress leader Tina Bhowmik Saha and her husband have gone missing, said the police on Wednesday.

The police have started a search for Tina Bhowmik Saha who is a close friend of arrested Trinamool Congress leader and former Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation Mayor Sabyasachi Dutta.

The police said that Tina Bhowmik Saha and her husband were not present at the house during the police search which began on Monday night and continued till Wednesday evening at her house in Nadia district’s Tehatta.

Police had searched the house of her parents as well as her in-laws’ house.

Her elderly mother-in-law told police officers that the couple had gone to work together on Monday and she had not spoken to her son and daughter-in-law since then.

Neighbours said that the two were seen leaving in their own car.

Questions are being raised whether they got news of the search operation at their house and decided not to return home.

It is suspected that after the recovery of the huge amount of gold jewellery, the couple has gone into hiding.

On the other hand, officers of Bidhannagar South Police Station have called them for questioning today.

It may be noted that based on the information obtained from arrested former Mayor of Bidhannagar and once influential leader Sabyasachi Dutta, the police conducted a search at the house of his close friend Tina Bhowmik Saha and recovered over 3 kilograms of gold jewellery worth over Rs 4.39 crore.

The police said on Tuesday that the gold was recovered following an overnight search at the house of the Nadia Zilla Parishad member at Tehatta. The Bidhannagar police have confiscated everything and started an investigation into the matter.

Earlier this month, Sabyasachi Dutta was arrested by officers of Bidhannagar South police station on multiple charges including extortion and illegal assets.

He was the candidate from Barasat in the recently-concluded Assembly polls, but could not win the election.

A few days after that, he was arrested and sent to judicial custody.

After investigating the source of Sabyasachi Dutta’s illegal assets, the police came to know that he had mainly bought gold through extortion and by using black money.

Investigators came across receipts for the purchase of the gold from his flat in Rajarhat and a bank locker and a huge amount of gold jewellery was also recovered.

Later, based on that source, it was seen that Sabyasachi Dutta had not only helped himself but also his close friends to buy gold by using his influence.

Taking into account several pieces of information obtained from his interrogation, Bidhannagar police conducted a search in Tehatta late on Monday night.

The investigators, along with Sabyasachi Dutta, went to the house of Tina Bhowmik Saha and recovered gold jewellery from her house with a market value of Rs 4.39 crore.

–IANS

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