NIA arrests 4 more in road blockade, judicial officers' detention cases in Bengal’s Mothabari

The accused have been booked under various provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, the National Highways Act, 1956, and the West Bengal Maintenance of Public Order (WBMPO) Act, 1972.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday informed that four more accused persons have been arrested in connection with four separate cases related to road blockades and the alleged illegal detention of judicial officers during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls at Mothabari in Malda district of West Bengal.

With these four fresh arrests, the total number of arrests in these cases by the NIA has increased to 72.

The accused have been booked under various provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, the National Highways Act, 1956, and the West Bengal Maintenance of Public Order (WBMPO) Act, 1972.

The Supreme Court had already directed the NIA to complete the investigation in the Mothabari case expeditiously.

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On May 11, Chief Justice Surya Kant also set a two-month deadline to complete the investigation. Following that order, the NIA filed chargesheets in four cases on June 2 at a special NIA court in Kolkata.

The cases in which the arrests were made and the chargesheets were filed are linked to violence that erupted on April 1 at the Mothabari Block Office in Malda district during protests related to the electoral roll revision exercise.

According to officials, judicial officers engaged in the SIR exercise allegedly came under attack while performing official duties. Police later rescued the officers from the protest site, but authorities claimed that the convoy escorting them was attacked again while leaving the area.

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A total of 12 cases have been registered in the matter, out of which chargesheets have been filed in four cases. A total of 31 people have been named as accused in the four cases for which chargesheets have been filed by the central investigating agency.

The chargesheets have been filed on the basis of witness statements and digital evidence, such as CCTV footage from places where the road blockades were carried out and the judicial officers were allegedly heckled.