The former president of the North Dinajpur BJP committee and presently the Secretary of the district TMC committee, Subhra Roy Chowdhury, has been accused of deceiving people with false promises of providing them with government jobs.

Two residents of Raiganj, Bijay Sarkar and Dulal Das, on Thursday, filed complaints against Mr Roy Chowdhury and his wife Barnali Roy Chowdhury. Significantly, a woman from Kolkata, had a month ago lodged a complaint against Mr Roy Chowdhury for living with her after promising marriage. She also held a ‘dharna’ in front of his house.

Mr Roy Chowdhury has been absconding since then. Mr Roy Chowdhury had left the BJP and joined the TMC with his followers on 10 January 2016, and he was elected as the secretary of the Raiganj unit of the TMC. Soon after Mukul Roy left the TMC, Mr Roy Chowdhury also resigned from the party. However, party leaders said that he was expelled from the party for anti-party activities.

“I know Mr Roy Chowdhury because he is a big political personality in Raiganj. One day he told me that he can help me land a job in the ICDS and Group C posts in the state government. On 5 July 2017, I visited his house and gave him Rs six lakh in cash for a job for my sister in the ICDS. However, after waiting for months, she did not get the job. On 4 December, I again went to meet Mr Roy Chowdhury, demanding to return my money.

He apparently used filthy language and refused to give back the money,” Bijay Sarkar, a Trinamool Chhatra Parishad leader in Raiganj, claimed. Dulal Das, another victim, claimed that he gave Rs 3.5 lakh to Mr Roy Chowdhury after assurances from him that he would provide a Group-C post of the state government for his nephew. “However, when the list was declared, we found that my nephew’s name was missing. Then, in the last week of December, I went to his house to get the money back.

His wife and other members of the family threatened me. I lodged a complaint against him with the police on Thursday,” he said. While no one was home at the Roy Chowdhurys on Thursday, the leader also did not answer phone calls despite several attempts. Inspector-in-charge, Raiganj police station, Sumanta Biswas, said, “We have received complaints against Mr Roy Chowdhury and have started investigations.”