KOLKATA: 18 persons were arrested on Thursday on charge of their alleged involvement in the the gheraoing of seven judicial officers in West Bengal's Malda district over voter deletions during the SIR in the state.
They were produced before the court and remanded to police custody for 10 days.
The arrested persons include an Indian Secular Front (ISF) candidate, Moulana Shahjahan Ali, contesting from Mothabari. Ali claimed that he had no involvement with the Kaliachak incident. “I was not there on the spot during the trouble. Police arrested me when I was coming back after seeing a musical show in my locality. I became a victim of conspiracy because I am ISF candidate,” he told reporters outside the court in Malda.
Expressing serious concern over violence in Kaliachak, Malda, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar since Wednesday, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Thursday held an emergency meeting through video conferencing with the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal, state Chief Secretary Dushyant Nariala, Home Secretary, Director General of Police and Commissioner of Police, among other officials.
The CEC directed them to take stock of the situation ahead of assembly elections scheduled on April 23 and 29 in the state.
Kumar also warned the officials reportedly saying, “Strong actions will be taken against officials concerned if any such incident takes place further.”
He also pulled up the SP of Malda for not taking proper and prompt action to rescue the judicial officers, who were gheraoed for more than seven hours till 4 pm on Wednesday at Kaliachak block II, sources said.
The CEC has also asked the DGP to nab all other culprits involved in the incident by Thursday night, sources added. On the other hand, the state CEO office today took strong actions to prevent agitations in front of the office housed in the Shipping Corporation Building in the city violating section 144 imposed in the area.
On Thursday/, the CEO office lodged FIR against two ruling Trinamool Congress councillors and several others staging protests in front of the office on 31 March midnight with Hare Street police station.