Former Minister Udayan Guha Remanded to Police Custody
Jalpaiguri: Former north Bengal development minister Udayan Guha was remanded to six days of police custody by a Dinhata court on Thursday in connection with a decade-old cheating case. But before he reached the courtroom, Guha found himself facing an angry crowd that pelted him with eggs and mud despite elaborate police arrangements, including a helmet intended to shield him.
Guha was arrested on Wednesday from his upscale apartment in Kolkata’s Kankurgachhi by a joint team of Dinhata and Phoolbagan police, accompanied by central forces. He was driven overnight to north Bengal and brought to Dinhata police station at around 5am on Thursday.
The case stems from a complaint lodged on June 11, 2016, by Gopal Saha, a resident of Ward No. 11 in Dinhata and the husband of Guha’s former domestic help. Saha alleged that Guha, then chairman of the Dinhata Municipality, had taken Rs 43,000 from him with the promise of securing a house under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).
Police officials claimed that preliminary investigations suggest Guha may have collected at least Rs 4.4 crore in alleged “cut money” from PMAY beneficiaries during his tenure as municipal chairman. Addressing the media on Thursday, Cooch Behar superintendent of police Yashprit Singh alleged that PMAY benefits had been extended to several ineligible individuals in exchange for large sums of money. The superintendent of police also appealed to residents to come forward with written complaints if they had been victims of similar practices.
On Wednesday, however, Guha maintained that he was innocent and stressed that he was being “targeted” by the new government. News of Guha’s arrival in Dinhata spread rapidly, drawing thousands of people to the police station. As police escorted him to Dinhata Sub-Divisional Hospital for a mandatory medical examination before producing him in court, crowds gathered along the route and hurled eggs at him.
Later in the day, Guha was produced before the additional chief judicial magistrate’s court in Dinhata, which remanded him to six days of police custody. The former minister is also facing allegations relating to post-poll violence, intimidation, corruption and an alleged attack on the convoy of current chief minister and then leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari.
Fresh allegations surfaced against him on June 11 this year when another Dinhata resident, Rupam Saha, filed a complaint accusing Guha of collecting crores of rupees in the name of establishing a modern paediatric unit under the banner of Sishu Mangal Samity at Dinhata Sub-Divisional Hospital. According to the complaint, the proposed facility never materialised.
The son of veteran Forward Bloc leader and former minister Kamal Guha, Udayan Guha joined the Trinamool Congress in 2015 while serving as the Dinhata MLA. He won the 2016 Assembly election on a Trinamool ticket and later became chairman of the Dinhata Municipality. In 2021, he returned to the Assembly through a by-election and was inducted into the state cabinet as north Bengal development minister.
However, in the 2026 Assembly election, Guha lost the Dinhata seat to BJP candidate Ajay Roy by nearly 18,000 votes.
