Former West Midnapore SP Bharati Ghosh, who was once said to be close to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, joined the BJP on Monday in the presence of Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and BJP leaders Mukul Roy and Kailash Vijayvargiya.

Mrs Ghosh, who was transferred as Commandant of West Bengal Armed Police’s 3rd Battalion on December 26, 2018, had resigned from the service two days later.

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After joining BJP, Mrs Ghosh without mentioning the name of Kolkata Police chief said how a top cop could sit on a dharna with a political leader. “This clearly depicted that this person has biased attitude and is working for a particular political party,” she said.

Hitting out at CM Mamata Banerjee, who sat on dharna by saying “this is a satyagraha and I’ll continue till the country is saved,” Mrs Ghosh said: “She should have held the ‘satyagraha’ when lakhs of people lost their money in the ponzy scams and committed suicide. Today she is doing it to protect a police commissioner. This is not ‘satyagraha.’ It is a political move to block the CBI probe.”

Ghosh accused Banerjee of trying to block the CBI probe into the chit fund cases.

“The chit fund mafias do not operate alone. They operate with the help of some people in the administration. Banerjee is hailing Rajeev Kumar as one of the best officers in the world. Then why the SIT led by him in Bengal could not arrest any of the actual culprits in the Saradha scam?” Ghosh asked.

After the former cop came to the saffron fold, BJP’s Kailash Vijayvargiya tweeted, “The BJP continues to grow in West Bengal.”

Bharati Ghosh was awarded a service medal on August 15, 2014.

Once considered close to Mamata Banerjee, Ghosh was transferred twice, once by the Election Commission before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and the second time by the state before the 2016 Assembly elections.

She was, however, reinstated as West Midnapore SP as soon as the elections got over on both occasions.

An arrest warrant was issued against Ghosh in connection with an extortion case registered at Daspur police station in West Midnapore district, following her resignation.

Her husband M A V Raju was also booked in the case of alleged extortion and illegal exchange of banned notes for gold.