NIA court turns down bail pleas of 52 in Bengal's Mothabari incident

KOLKATA: A National Investigation Agency (NIA) court has rejected the bail applications of 52 accused in the case relating to the alleged besieging and harassment of officials assigned to Special Intensive Revision (SIR) work in Mothabari in Malda district.

On Thursday, the court ordered that all of them, including Mofakkerul Islam, be sent to judicial custody. The 52 accused will remain in judicial custody till May 13.

The officials appointed by the Calcutta High Court were responsible for verifying the documents of voters on the pending list under the SIR process and settling related matters.

On April 3, an agitated crowd kept seven officials assigned to SIR work confined inside the Kaliachak-II block office till midnight. It has been alleged that a section of those whose names were excluded from the list under consideration surrounded and intimidated the officials. The incident subsequently reached the Supreme Court.

On the directions of the apex court, the Election Commission handed over the investigation of the incident to the NIA.

However, before the NIA took over the probe, Mofakkerul Islam had been arrested by the West Bengal CID, the intelligence wing of the state police. The accused were identified one by one after examining video footage of the incident and were subsequently arrested.