Kolkata, April 2 – Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, in a virtual meeting on Thursday, directed the West Bengal Police to ensure the arrest of every individual responsible for harassing the seven judicial officers at Kaliachak in Malda district by midnight.
At the meeting, West Bengal Director General of Police Siddh Nath Gupta and the Malda district police superintendent, Anupam Singh, faced the ire of the CEC for the state police's delayed response in rescuing the seven judicial officers, including three women, who were virtually held hostage for more than seven hours by a group of people protesting at Kaliachak over the deletion of their names from the voter list during the ongoing judicial adjudication of cases classified under the "logical discrepancy" category.
The meeting was attended, among others, by the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal, the State Chief Secretary, Dushyant Nariala, and the State Home Secretary, Sanghamitra Ghosh.
An insider from the State CEO's office, aware of the developments at the meeting, said that the CEC expressed concern over both the delayed action by the police in rescuing the judicial officers on Wednesday night, as well as on the sustained protests for the last two days in front of the State CEO's office in Kolkata.
"The CEC also raised questions about the lack of police action in controlling the tension near the residence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in South Kolkata, while the convoy of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Suvendu Adhikari was proceeding towards the Alipore Survey Building for LoP Adhikari to file his nomination from the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency in South Kolkata," the CEO's office insider said.
Present at the meeting was Kolkata Police Commissioner Ajay Nand, who also faced the ire of CEC Kumar over the incident near the Chief Minister's residence.
In the meeting, the West Bengal CEO's office insider added that the CEC also raised the question of why the Malda district police superintendent did not turn up at the spot and instead sent the additional district police superintendent there.
"The CEC also raised the question of why the judicial officers, who were held hostage on Wednesday, could not contact the Malda District Magistrate (Rajanvir Singh Kapur) on his mobile phone," the CEO's office insider said.
