Police sources said a raid on a musical bar in Jalpaiguri had led to a few arrests

A West Midnapore BJP leader has been arrested on charges of helping a Bangladeshi woman obtain an Aadhaar card and proof of residence certificate allegedly issued by BJP state president Dilip Ghosh when he was the Kharagpur MLA two years ago.

Ravi Kumar, arrested from the Dharma of West Midnapore on Tuesday, was on Wednesday brought to Jalpaiguri where police had first detected the fraud.

Police sources said in July this year, a raid on a musical bar in Jalpaiguri town, based on reports about illegal activities like human trafficking, had led to a few arrests.

Those arrested include Dharam Paswan, the bar owner, and employees Soumen Bayen and his wife Pushpa Roy.

The police found during investigations that Pushpa was a Bangladeshi who had procured an Aadhaar card in her name.

“As we probed further, we came to know that Soumen, her husband, had links with Ravi Kumar. Soumen also hails from West Midnapore and had managed to obtain a proof of residence certificate in Pushpa’s name issued by an MLA through Ravi Kumar. We suspect that along with this certificate, she had furnished some other fake documents to obtain the card,” said a police source.

Ravi — who claims to be the convenor of the sports and club cell of the BJP in West Midnapore — said he had been framed. “I had provided a proof of residence certificate issued by Dilip Ghosh, the MLA of Kharagpur then, to Soumen Bayen for his wife. A case was registered in Jalpaiguri and I have been wrongly implicated in it,” Ravi said.

Calls to Ghosh, who is the current Midnapore MP, seeking his comment went unanswered. Jalpaiguri police chief Abhishek Modi said the probe was on to see if more people were involved in the racket.