Former Trinamool Congress Minister Udayan Guha was arrested from his residence in Kolkata’s Phoolbagan area on Wednesday (June 17, 2026) in connection with a cheating and financial misappropriation case registered in Cooch Behar district.

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“Mr. Guha has been arrested based on an FIR lodged at Dinhata police station on June 11 under Sections 406, 409, 420 of the IPC. The case relates to allegations of cheating and collection of ‘cut money’ under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana since 2016," said a senior police officer from Cooch Behar. 

He said that the complainant, an individual from Dinhata, alleged that the former Minister collected crores of rupees from local residents to set up a children's unit at a government hospital. The complainant also claimed that the former Minister did not issue any receipts against the money collected and that the promised project was never executed.

Mr. Guha is the fourth Minister from the previous Trinamool Congress government to face arrest since the BJP came to power in West Bengal after the 2026 Assembly elections. Earlier, former Minister Sujit Bose, Ujjwal Biswas and Dilip Mondal were arrested by the police and the Enforcement Directorate on charges of cheating, extortion and criminal intimidation.

Mr. Guha is the son of former Forward Bloc leader and State Agriculture Minister Kamal Guha. He won the 2011 Assembly elections on a Forward Bloc ticket but later switched to the Trinamool Congress, on whose ticket he won the 2016 Assembly election. 

Meanwhile, the Kolkata police arrested Trinamool Congress councillor Sushanta Ghosh of Ward number 108 from Puri in Odisha after he had allegedly been absconding for weeks. 

According to the police, Mr. Ghosh and his associates allegedly extorted over ₹3 crore from hawkers and traders near the EM Bypass-Ruby crossing in Kolkata, following which at least 130 members of a hawkers’ association lodged an FIR against him at Anandapur police station.

The police said Mr. Ghosh had absconded after the FIR was registered. His driver was arrested by a team of the Anandapur police from Bengal-Odisha border on Friday.