Agartala: An interview that was supposed to highlight government achievements has instead pulled the curtain on alleged corruption practices in Tripura, with Minister for Welfare of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Animal Resources Development Department (ARDD), Sudhanshu Das, now fighting to save his political career.

Footage has emerged showing him reportedly describing contractor payments to government representatives as common practice. Das insists the damaging clip was manufactured through deceptive editing.

The controversy erupted on October 12 when Rashtriya Samachar, a Facebook-based news channel, uploaded an interview with Das. While the official duration of the interview covered state development, employment issues, and concerns of 10,323 teachers, it was the footage captured after the interview concluded that has set off a political firestorm.

According to the channel's owner and anchor Nibedita Chakraborty, a hidden camera recorded what the minister later termed an "informal conversation" between Das and her husband, in the presence of their daughter. Chakraborty later claimed she carried the camera for self-protection from what she termed 'andhbhakts' – unquestioning supporters – of such ministers.

During this exchange, the minister allegedly stated, "This is an open secret, at this time those public representatives who are in the government receive money from contractors and we spend it on social works."

The statement reportedly came in response to questions about opposition claims regarding the minister's rapid wealth accumulation and his brother's reported status as a top taxpayer in the state.

'A competition of corruption in government and TTAADC': Tripura LoP

The footage triggered immediate condemnation from opposition parties. On October 15, CPI(M) politburo member and Leader of the Opposition Jitendra Chaudhury launched a blistering attack on the minister, stating, "Our minister Sudhanshu Das is saying 'I have source of money, I take money from contractors' which means taking bribes. This is a competition of corruption between TTAADC and the state government."

Chaudhury pointed to the minister's dramatic financial transformation, noting, "For the past two years he has been a minister, before that he was an MLA for five years, and already there are numerous complaints about this minister in his constituency and throughout Tripura state. Before he became an MLA, his family was a BPL card holder in his mother's name. In just these seven years, his elder brother has now become the state's top taxpayer of last year."

The opposition leader demanded immediate dismissal, declaring, "This minister who is immersed in the ocean of corruption, there is no need to prove it anymore. Therefore, this minister should be dismissed immediately. The one who took oath in the name of the constitution and became a minister does not deserve to remain in this position even for a moment."

Chaudhury also referenced an incident in Kumarghat where he alleged that the minister's brother and his associates assaulted an Executive Engineer at night in his quarters after the engineer held up payment bills. "This is completely unethical, corrupt, and this is looting of government property and abuse of power," he added.

Congress writes to CM, calls BJP a 'washing machine' for corruption

Tripura Pradesh Congress president Asish Kumar Saha also demanded action, telling the media on October 15, "The allegations we raised against the BJP leaders from Ministers to MLA and even party workers, everyone is involved in commission business, they give work to people in exchange for commission."

Saha wrote a formal letter to the chief minister, stating, "Along with the people of the state, you must have also become aware that one of the members of your cabinet, minister Sudhanshu Das, has openly admitted in a state media that he himself takes money from various sources and other ministers of the government also do so. Although he did not want to call it bribery, whether it is an offering or tribute, it goes without saying that it is legally a serious crime of corruption."

The Congress leader noted that the minister's family was BPL-listed before 2018 and questioned how the family accumulated crores worth of property in just seven years.

"I am forced to strongly demand from you as the Pradesh Congress president that without any further delay, the minister should be immediately dismissed from the cabinet and proper investigation should be conducted into the source of this abnormal financial growth of him and his family according to law," he wrote.

Saha also criticised the government's silence on the matter, stating, "After that statement went viral we thought that if it is not true it would be countered by the minister or even discussed at the ministerial level but they all remain silent and even after knowing everything the Chief Minister also remain silent, it proves BJP party is working like a washing machine."

Minister issues October 26 deadline, threatens defamation suits

Facing mounting pressure, Das held a press conference at Agartala Press Club on October 16, offering a dramatically different version of events. The minister claimed that Chakraborty had been persistently requesting an interview for two months, calling him four to five times every week before he finally agreed on Saturday, October 11.

The minister described what happened after the formal interview concluded. "After the interview ended, she and her husband stood around for five minutes and praised my work. They said I was good, that I had guts and replied to all questions fearlessly. They said many such things."

Das then alleged that the couple made a financial demand. "They made a request saying, 'We do not get any money from the ICA department. Our revenue source is low. We are struggling to earn a living. We are requesting you that as you are minister of three departments, we will go every day with you and cover your events, and in exchange of that, please arrange five to seven lakh rupees annually for us as remuneration.'”

"In this context, I said, 'It is not possible to give such amount of money from my department and what is my source of income, from where will I give Rs five to seven lakh.' This discussion was on this subject," he added.

The minister accused the journalist of character assassination through selective editing. "My question will be to that journalist about the ‘source’ that she publicised or sold to CPI(M)'s page or party. I request her to upload everything that was discussed. Just by cutting a segment of 25 to 30 seconds and presenting it according to your convenience to the state's people, you are ruining my personal character. This is truly condemnable," Das said.

Meanwhile, Das also hit back at Chaudhury's allegations about his wealth and his brother's tax status. "Since 2014, I have been paying income tax. At that time I was working in a private Pharma company. On June 2, 2017, I resigned from my job and jumped into politics. When I resigned from my job, my monthly income was Rs 70,000-80,000. Before becoming an MLA, I traveled to three countries including Dubai, Thailand and Maldives," he stated.

The minister issued a challenge to the opposition leader. "Jitendra Chaudhury has been propagating for the past four to five months that my elder brother is the state's highest taxpayer. I challenge Jitendra Chaudhury to prove that my elder brother is the highest taxpayer. If he can prove it, I will resign. He has to prove it by October 26. Otherwise, he will have to apologize before the state's people. If he does not, I will file a defamation case at high court against Jitendra Chaudhury."

Das defended his mother against the opposition's references to her BPL status and announced plans to file defamation cases against both Chaudhury and the Facebook page.

Similarly, the minister’s brother, Himangshu Das, responded to the allegations by expressing his frustration at Chaudhury on his official Facebook account. He wrote:

“I openly challenge the Maoist leader, Jitendra Chaudhury, who is the arch-nemesis of the common people and a puppet of anti-national forces backed by China.

"If his paternal identity is genuine, let him prove it by showing that I am the highest taxpayer in the state. Otherwise, I request him not to bark unnecessarily,” he added.

Media channel releases full footage

On October 17, Nibedita Chakraborty, owner of Rashtriya Samachar, presented what she claimed was the complete footage of the interview.

Chakraborty showed what appears to be the unedited portion where the minister responded on camera to questions about opposition claims. When asked about Left Front allegations that he and his family were poor before he became minister but became rich overnight with his brother becoming the state's highest taxpayer and buying many properties, Das replied on camera in footage that was also included earlier, "What the Left Front said is not our headache as we believe they are people with a distorted mentality. If you look at their character, their life is going through negativity. They do not understand our culture. They are atheists. They are people from another planet.”

The anchor then presented the extended footage of the post-interview conversation where Das allegedly made comparisons with opposition leaders. "You talked about my family. But how did Jitendra Chaudhury build five houses in Agartala? How did he buy a flat in Kolkata? What is his income? What is Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman's income? How did he become the owner of crores? In Agartala and its surroundings, he owns nearly two hundred plots. How did he get those plots?" the minister reportedly stated.

Chakraborty showed footage where Das discussed helping a patient with Rs two lakh for medical treatment, arranging travel expenses, and giving Rs one lakh in cash with assurance of more if needed.

At this point, according to the footage, he said, "This is an open secret. At this time, those public representatives who are in the government receive money from contractors and we spend it on such social works.”

"The minister himself claimed he enjoyed a luxurious life before joining BJP and had a high-paying job as well as five gonda of land in Dharmanagar. His salary at that time was around seventy thousand rupees, and he received nearly one lakh to one and a half lakh rupees in incentives every quarter. Why did he not mention this to the Election Commission in his 2016-17 declared assets?" she questioned.

The controversy has exposed deep fissures in Tripura's politics and raised serious questions about governance and accountability. The opposition parties have framed the incident as confirmation of systematic corruption within the ruling BJP government, while the minister and his supporters characterise it as a coordinated conspiracy to destroy his reputation through deceptive journalism.

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