A day after two suitcases packed with bundles of termite-infested cash and a firearm were allegedly recovered from an almirah inside the union room of Surendranath College in Kolkata, the police on Wednesday booked Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Debashish Banerjee and another person in connection with the case.

According to the police, at about 4.30 pm on Tuesday, when the college authorities opened a room on the ground floor by breaking the padlock, they found two suitcases packed with soiled and damaged Indian currency notes of Rs 100 and Rs 500 denominations.

The notes were found inside a storeroom in the backyard of Surendranath College on Tuesday when the staff, in the presence of the principals of Surendranath Day and Evening College, were cleaning the rooms ahead of the monsoon. On Tuesday night, the college authorities also found a country-made single-shooter firearm.

A case was lodged at Muchipara police station under sections 61(2) (criminal conspiracy), 329(4) (house trespass), 324(5) (mischief by injuring or maiming animals or property), and 351(2) (criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and sections of the Arms Act and Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.

“The accused, Debasish Banerjee, being the ex-governing body member and Paritosh Dutta, vendor of Surendranath College, entered into a criminal conspiracy and pursuant to that, they forcefully locked certain rooms on the ground floor and a union room of Surendranath College and used those for their own purposes,” a senior police official said. The authorities alleged that the accused used to threaten them when they demanded the keys to the rooms.