KMC suspends Firhad Hakim's OSD Kalicharan after 72-hours in custody

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has officially suspended Kalicharan Banerjee, the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to former Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, following his arrest in connection with the recent Taratala disaster. Under statutory service rules, any public official remaining in police custody for more than 72 hours faces automatic suspension. Banerjee was apprehended by investigators after his name surfaced as a central figure in municipal building plan approvals, and he will remain ineligible to return to active duty until he legally establishes his innocence in court.

The administrative action follows a sharp political disclosure by Chief Minister Shuvendu Adhikari, who openly targeted Firhad Hakim inside the State Assembly by presenting investigative documents. The Chief Minister alleged that Banerjee was originally appointed to the municipal corporation on influential directives stemming from Camac Street, exercising absolute control over building authorizations throughout Kolkata. Over the weekend, Special Investigation Team (SIT) sleuths escorted the detained official to his flat in Howrah to conduct extensive raids, actively searching for unauthorized structural blueprints and transactional evidence tied to the ongoing probe.

A review of his professional trajectory reveals that Banerjee secured the second rank in the 2003 West Bengal Civil Service (WBCS) examination, briefly shifting to the police service before returning to the Land Revenue Department and later joining the KMC in 2010. Municipal staffers disclosed that during Hakim's mayoral tenure starting in 2018, Banerjee's institutional influence grew so immense that no internal files or structural clearances moved without his explicit consent. Despite facing marathon interrogation by the SIT regarding alleged financial payoffs, flawed plan sanctions, and accomplices, the suspended OSD has reportedly maintained total silence.