A police complaint has alleged that former West Bengal minister Indranil Sen and officials of an organisation led by his wife misappropriated public funds and hurt religious sentiments after falsely claiming the organisation was Unesco’s official partner to promote Durga Puja in the state.

Jaydeep Mukherjee, Managing Director of Meghdutam Travels Pvt Ltd and a global promoter of Durga Puja since 2010, submitted the complaint to Kolkata Commissioner of Police Ajay Nand on Monday.

Indranil Sen was minister of state (independent charge) for tourism, information and cultural affairs in the previous government. The others named in the complaint are Indranil’s wife Madhuchhanda Sen, who is the president of the Mahanirban Road Mass Art Society (massArt), and the organisation’s secretary Dhrubajyoti Bose, vice-president Sayantan Maitra, and treasurer Rajan Chatterjee.

The complaint alleged that massArt had falsely claimed to be Unesco’s official partner since 2022, leveraging support from state departments. “As a result of such false claims of association with Unesco, the accused persons cheated the common people and carried out an extortion racket in the State of West Bengal. Such extortion and theft were actively supported by the erstwhile Government of West Bengal through its Minister, namely, Indranil Sen,” the complaint read.

The complaint outlined a commercial ticketing model implemented from 2022 to 2024, where massArt allegedly sold tickets to the public for “Preview Shows” at selected puja pandals, claiming they were selected by the UN agency.

“The ‘Preview Show’ rendered such Durga Puja Pandals exclusively accessible to the people who had bought the tickets and barred entry to the common people at large… What has always been a free, public celebration of devotion, spirituality and art has created tension and confrontation among millions of people, turning neighbourhood Durga Pujas into a restricted zone, embedded in the profit-at-all-cost model of privatisation, resulting in spoiling the greatness of Durga Puja,” the complaint added.

The complaint requested the commissioner to take stringent action against the five people, whom it accused of cheating the public in the name of Durga Puja and hurt their religious sentiments.

MassArt has not issued any statement in the wake of the complaint. Indranil Sen was unreachable on his phone.