NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday arrested 15 people in West Bengal’s Malda district in connection with alleged road blockades and the illegal detention of judicial officers conducting a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls ahead of the state Assembly elections, the agency said on Tuesday.
The agency arrested the accused for obstructing the SIR exercise, a process overseen by judicial officers. The NIA said the incidents involved coordinated acts of interference with the democratic process.
The federal investigative agency took over the probe on the direction of the Election Commission of India after the Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of the incidents, signalling the gravity with which authorities viewed the alleged obstruction of the electoral machinery.
On April 2, the apex court had stated that the gherao of seven judicial officers without food or water for more than nine hours at a government office in West Bengal’s Malda district, reportedly after several voters were struck off the electoral roll during the SIR exercise, was not only a “brazen attempt” to browbeat the officers but also amounted to a challenge to the authority of the top court.
In the first case, 12 individuals, including prime accused Joshim Sk and Asmaul Sk, were arrested for allegedly detaining a female judicial officer for approximately eight hours on the road between Haibatola and Amlitola.
In a separate incident, three others, Alamgir Sk, Nurul Islam and Habibur Rahman, were arrested for allegedly blocking Bagmara Bridge in the Mothabari block, impeding the movement of officials on duty.
The agency said teams of officials were working to identify and apprehend others allegedly involved in the incidents.
The NIA added that it was also looking into the broader conspiracy behind what it described as coordinated blockades and the unlawful detention of judges.