Sleuths of the crime branch of Tripura police is conducting raids at two residences of senior CPI-M leader and former state minister Pabitra Kar.
Both the residences of Tripura CPI-M leader Pabitra Kar are located in Agartala city – one at Khairpur locality, the other one at Ramnagar locality.
These raids on the residences of the senior CPI-M leader comes just days after Tripura police’s ‘Vigilance Wing’ filed an FIR against him on charges of corruption and financial offences.
This is the second case to be filed against opposition leader Pabitra Kar, the first being filed in 2019 for his alleged involvement in a Rs 600 crore public works department (PWD) scam.
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Deputy superintendent of police (Vigilance) Jeremiya Darlong said that the case was registered based on preliminary investigations into the alleged corruption of Rs 28 crore by Pabitra Kar in implementation of various components of Tripura JICA project, OBC Corporation, Information Technology, Tripura Industry Development Corporation, Tripura Institute of Technology and National Institute of Technology.
Notably, Kar was the minister of industries and information technology in the third and fourth left-front government regime under the then chief minister Manik Sarkar in 1998 and 2003, but was excluded from the cabinet in 2006.
Kar was later nominated as chairman of the Tripura Industry Development Corporation (TIDC).
Investigations revealed that during his tenure as a minister, Kar had allegedly embezzled a huge fund.
Some irregularities were also allegedly found during his chairmanship in TIDC, which attracted panel action under the Prevention of Corruption Act.