1.77 crore cash, condoms & AC bedrooms found at private school in Kanchrapara in nightlong raid

An overnight police raid at a private English medium school in Kanchrapara yielded an astronomical sum of unaccounted cash alongside highly objectionable items. Acting on persistent local rumors, the Bijpur police—accompanied by the newly elected BJP MLA Sandeep Das—stormed the school premises on Wednesday night. What began as a financial audit quickly turned into a massive scandal when investigators uncovered an elite, fully furnished air-conditioned bedroom concealed right adjacent to the school's main accounts office.

During a meticulous search of the hidden luxury room, police officials opened a wardrobe to discover mirrors and multiple packets of condoms, a bizarre find that left the school's principal, Bikash Chandra Pal, completely speechless before the media. Meanwhile, the financial wing of the school was found to be holding sacks of currency. The police department had to deploy three separate currency counting machines, which whirred through the night until 6:00 AM on Thursday to ascertain the final amount, which stood at a staggering Rs 1.77 crore. Law enforcement authorities have officially arrested three senior employees from the institution's accounts department.

The recovery has triggered an intense political firestorm, with local leaders alleging that the school campus was being utilized as an illegal financial safehouse and an upscale recreational den by influential political heavyweights. Local MLA Sudipta Das lashed out at the school management, directly accusing Barrackpore MP Partha Bhowmik and outgoing Kanchrapara Mayor Kamal Adhikari of hiding their syndicate money inside the educational institution. Concerns were also raised regarding the family of former Bijpur MLA Subodh Adhikari, whose residence was previously raided by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in 2022, suggesting the school had long been a repository for illicit cash.

In an attempt to control the damage, Principal Bikash Chandra Pal offered a series of defenses that have raised further eyebrows. He claimed that the Rs 1.77 crore seized by the police actually comprised genuine student admission fees collected during March and April, which could not be deposited in the bank on time due to administrative delays. When pressed about the discovery of contraceptives and a fully furnished double bed inside an educational complex, the principal claimed the space was merely a "sick room" meant for ailing students, while promising an internal investigation into how the contraceptives ended up in the cupboard.