Police arrest 17 people in Malda judicial officers gherao case; EC hands over probe to NIA
Mangalore Today News Network
Kolkata, Apr 3, 2026: Police on Thursday arrested at least 17 people, including a poll candidate, for their alleged role in the gherao of seven judicial officials in West Bengal’s Malda district over the deletion of names from electoral rolls, a senior officer said.
Indian Secular Front (ISF) candidate Maulana Shahjahan Ali was among those arrested. He and 16 others were produced before a district court, which remanded them to 10 days of police custody.
“These individuals were involved in last night’s incident in Malda. We have concrete evidence and will question them further,” the officer said.
The arrests follow a Wednesday incident at the Kaliachak II block office under the Mothabari Assembly constituency, where seven judicial officials—three of them women—were allegedly confined for over seven-and-a-half hours by protesters at a BDO office while carrying out voter list-related work.
Denying the allegations, Ali claimed he was being targeted due to his political affiliation. “I have been falsely implicated because I am an ISF candidate,” he told reporters while being produced in court, adding that he was not present at the scene and had been returning from a religious gathering when he was arrested.
Police said the investigation is ongoing and further arrests have not been ruled out.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission of India has handed over the probe into the incident to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) following a directive from the Supreme Court.
Taking serious note of the incident, the apex court criticised the West Bengal administration and ordered a CBI or NIA probe. In a letter dated April 2, the poll body directed the NIA to investigate the matter, with a team expected to reach the state on Friday.
The Supreme Court termed the incident a “brazen attempt” to intimidate judicial officers and a challenge to its authority. It also directed the Election Commission to deploy adequate central forces to ensure the safety of officials engaged in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The court acted suo motu based on a letter from the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, which described how the officials, along with a five-year-old child, were held hostage for over nine hours without food or water.
The officials were eventually rescued by security forces around midnight on Wednesday.