KOLKATA: Chicken curry and parathas for jailed Trinamool Congress (TMC) strongman Arabul Islam has landed a convict serving as canteen staff in trouble at Kolkata’s Alipore Central Jail.
Monirul Mollah was dismissed from duty for allegedly doling out special arrangements to the TMC strongman. Arabul is lodged in jail in connection with a Bhangar murder case. Mollah came in contact with the TMC leader when the latter was lodged at the Alipore Jail Hospital.
He allegedly supplied Arabul with special food not on jail menu and even personally changed his bed-sheets every day, as per complaint lodged by other jail inmates. Questioning of the canteen cooks confirmed that special dishes were being cooked for Arabul. It is believed that these inmates were enraged with the preferential service being dished out the Trinamool man.
Arabul was arrested for the murder of Jomi, Jibika, Poribesh o Bastutantra Raksha Samiti leader Hafijur Rahman, who was shot in the face while leading a rally of the committee’s candidate Ishrafiq Mollah who contested against Arabul in the panchayat elections.
The arrest of the district-level TMC leader on May 12 came after the orders from TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Arabul hoped to get bail after Hafijur’s widow Sabina Khatun on June 7 testified at the Baruipur sub-divisional court that he was not involved in the murder of her husband.
But, the court rejected his bail plea on June 13. Arabul was expelled from the ruling Trinamool Congress in 2014 for six years for his involvement in the murder of two party workers in a turf war.
He was arrested in 2013 for orchestrating an attack on the then Communist Party of India- Marxist leader and present Bhangar Trinamool legislator Rezzak Mollah and also in 2015 for dictating multi-crore land deals.
After his expulsion from Trinamool was revoked in 2016, his men went out in pitched battles with anti-power grid agitators at Bhangar in West Bengal.