TMC leader arrested for ‘smuggling elephant tusks’ in Bihar

A joint team of Bihar police and the state’s forest department arrested Trinamool Congress leader Ashok Kumar Ojha and four other accused in Bihar’s Buxar district.

The joint team raided a house belonging to Ojha in Devkuli village under the Brahmpur police station area and recovered two elephant tusks weighing around 23 kg, worth lakhs of rupees, Bihar police sources said. (File Photo)

After a joint team of the Bihar police and forest department arrested Trinamool Congress leader Ashok Kumar Ojha and four others for smuggling elephant tusks in the Buxar district, Leader of West Bengal Assembly Opposition and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari called TMC a “general store of crimes… not even sparing wildlife”.

Meanwhile, the TMC announced they would expel Ojha, who is president of ward 42 of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, from the party.

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Ojha is known to be close to TMC MLA of Burrabazar Vivek Gupta. When the news broke out, Gupta said, “I heard that they (including Ojha) used to keep elephants at home. Many people in Bihar keep elephants at home. Recently, one of their elephants died. They sold that dead elephant. He left two ivory tusks at home. The party has nothing to do with this incident. He has been expelled from the party and all posts.”

Taking to X on Wednesday, Adhikari posted, “Prominent TMC leader Ashok Kumar Ojha of Burrabazar, Kolkata arrested from Bihar’s Buxar in Ivory smuggling case. Ojha, the figure of the smuggling racket was arrested along with four others for smuggling Elephant Tusks weighing 23 kg… I wonder what’s next!!!”

The four other accused who were arrested are from Bihar. They have been identified as Ganpat Sah from Begusarai, Manoj Kumar Pandey from Pipra Jagdishpur, Paras Nath Ram from Karakat, and Dhananjay Prasad Singh from Tirasi Bigha, Rohtas. Further investigation is underway.

Atri Mitra

Atri Mitra is a Special Correspondent of The Indian Express with more than 20 years of experience in reporting from West Bengal, Bihar and the North-East. He has been covering administration and political news for more than ten years and has a keen interest in political development in West Bengal. Atri holds a Master degree in Economics from Rabindrabharati University and Bachelor's degree from Calcutta University. He is also an alumnus of St. Xavier's, Kolkata and Ramakrishna Mission Asrama, Narendrapur. He started his career with leading vernacular daily the Anandabazar Patrika, and worked there for more than fifteen years. He worked as Bihar correspondent for more than three years for Anandabazar Patrika. He covered the 2009 Lok Sabha election and 2010 assembly elections. He also worked with News18-Bangla and covered the Bihar Lok Sabha election in 2019. ... Read More

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