Ex-Panihati MLA goes into hiding, son already at large as police hunt them in extortion cases

Former Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA from Panihati, Nirmal Ghosh, and his son, Tirthankar Ghosh, have reportedly gone into hiding following a barrage of corruption and extortion allegations. According to local law enforcement sources, both the father and son have been untraceable since Saturday, prompting the Khardah police to initiate a widespread manhunt and track their mobile phone locations. The sudden disappearance comes amidst an intensified administrative crackdown on anti-social elements and political figures accused of graft following the recent change of government in West Bengal.

The investigation gained significant momentum after the Khardah police arrested a close associate of the family, Sushant Sarkar—a local bar owner—on charges of demanding extortion money using illegal firearms. During custodial interrogation following his presentation at the Barrackpore court, Sarkar directly implicated both Nirmal and Tirthankar Ghosh in the local extortion racket. Tirthankar, who recently contested the Panihati assembly constituency seat as a TMC candidate, suffered a major defeat against the BJP’s Ratna Debnath, whose local leadership claims that the arrest of both family members is imminent given their extensive history of regional misdeeds.

Beyond the immediate extortion case, the former lawmaker faces multiple highly sensitive investigations that have kept him under the regulatory scanner. Nirmal Ghosh has been previously interrogated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for his controversial role in allegedly expediting the cremation of the victim at the Panihati crematorium during the high-profile R.G. Kar Medical College case to suppress crucial evidence. Additionally, local authorities are probing separate criminal complaints against him, including a bizarre incident where he was accused of forcibly snatching a winning lottery ticket worth one crore rupees from a local resident.