ZAGREB, 15 Dec 2021 - The mayor of the City of Kutina, 70 kilometers southeast of Zagreb, Zlatko Babić, and three more suspects in the case believed to be connected with the alleged white-collar crimes, were arrested by the police on Wednesday.

The Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) and the police did not reveal the identities of the arrested persons.

Media outlets speculate that apart from Babić, also Davor Kljakić, who was until recently the chairman of the city council, an independent councilor Dražen Kinderman, and Darko Kolsek were arrested.

The arrests are believed to be connected with the recent accusations made by whistle-blower Adrijana Cvrtila.

After her accusations, Babić left the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) to become independent. On that occasion, he said that the accusations that he used his position to have some people hired prompted him to clear his name before state institutions without having "the name of my party dragged through the mud."

Cvrtila, the head of the local utility company Eko Moslavina, whose majority owner is the town of Kutina, said recently that Babić and the head of the local HSLS party branch, Davor Kljakić, had exerted pressure on her to make her hire individual members of their parties as well as relatives of local councilors or raise their wages in order to ensure those councilors' support for the town budget and budget revision.

Cvrtila has reported both Babić and Kljakić to the USKOK anti-corruption agency.

For more, check out our dedicated politics section.