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.

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. They followed a tip-off on the illegal sale of tusks in the illegal market.

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.