Another govt official held in corruption case linked to Birbhum stone quarry owner Tulu Mandal

Kolkata: The police have arrested another government official from the Mohammadbazar area in West Bengal's Birbhum district in a financial embezzlement and corruption case linked to absconding stone quarry owner Tulu Mandal.

The arrested person has been identified as Sabyasachi Mandal. He is a former officer of the Land and Land Reforms Office (BLRO) of Mohammadbazar Block, said the police on Sunday. He was summoned to Suri on Saturday for questioning. During the questioning, inconsistencies were found in the information. Late on Saturday night, he was arrested.

According to the police, Sabyasachi is currently working as a Collectorate and Land Acquisition Officer in Jhargram district. According to investigative sources, this officer had special contacts with Tulu Mandal. Sabyasachi is accused of embezzling government revenue and abetting the fake receipt or duplicate carbon receipt (DCR) ring.

Investigators claimed that the former BLRO of Mohammadbazar has been arrested on the same charge. He was the BLRO of Mohammadbazar from 2022 to 2025.

It may be noted that last month, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of West Bengal Police arrested two people, including the treasurer of the BLRO office, Bishwajit Saha, in the same case.

According to investigative sources, several people have been questioned in the Tulu Mandal case for the past few days. Bishwajit Saha was previously called to the police station for questioning five times. He was arrested due to several inconsistencies in his statement. On the other hand, Tulu's very close employee Kausar Ali was also arrested by the police after several interrogations.

Investigators claimed that Kausar was responsible for managing several of Tulu's bank accounts in addition to Tulu's unaccounted income. The police also seized several bank cheque books from him.

Tulu Mandal had a monopoly on the stone and sand business in several areas, including Mohammadbazar and Nalhati in Birbhum during the previous Trinamool Congress government era.

It is alleged that with the help of a section of the administration, he printed these fake DCRs, embezzled hundreds of crores of rupees from the government and amassed a mountain of wealth. This stone mafia has been on the run since the search of Tulu's brother-in-law Minar Mandal's house, during which 28.5 crore rupees in cash and 15 kilograms of gold were recovered.

Investigators estimate that Tulu has already fled to Dubai or Turkey. Recently, the government lawyer also applied to the Suri District Court to label him a 'proclaimed criminal' and confiscate his assets.

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