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The National Investigation Agency on Saturday arrested two key conspirators in West Bengal’s 2022 blast case amid an alleged attack by protesters on the probe agency’s team in East Medinipore district. As the alleged attack on NIA refreshes the memory of the attack on ED in Sandeshkhali, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader has called the attack “direct evidence of the TMC’s Talibani mindset culture”. Hours after the attack, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed that it was the NIA team that attacked women at Bhupatinagar, “not the other way round”.
NIA team attacked by crowd in West Bengal–What has happened so far?
-As NIA officials continued their investigation in the Bengal 2022 blast case, they were allegedly heckled in West Bengal’s Purba Medinipur district on Saturday.
-Amid the alleged attack by the crowd, the NIA team arrested two key conspirators in a 2022 blast case, an official told PTI on Saturday. During the incident, an NIA officer was injured and a vehicle of the NIA team was damaged, a spokesperson of the federal investigating agency said.
-“In a major breakthrough in West Bengal’s Bhupatinagar blast case, in which three persons were killed in December 2022, the NIA arrested two key conspirators amid stiff resistance from an unruly crowd in the state’s East Medinipore district,” said a spokesperson of the NIA on Saturday.
-After extensive searches in different locations, the NIA team arrested Balai Charan Maity and Manobrata Jana. The NIA officials had to face resistance from locals when they searched Jana’s house.
-During their investigation, the crowd tried to stop the NIA team and its security component from moving towards the Bhupatinagar police station to complete the arrest formalities. The NIA has complained to the local police station in this regard, reported PTI.
-Reacting to the incident, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleged the misrepresentation of the whole scenario. The TMC supremo blamed NIA officials of attacking villagers at Bhupatinagar in East Midnapore district and not the other way round.
-She claimed that the NIA team gone to the houses of villagers in the early hours to investigate an incident of “bursting of crackers in 2022″. “The attack was not carried out by women of Bhupatinagar, it was by the National Investigation Agency (NIA),” she said at an election rally in South Dinajpur district’s Balurghat.
-Expressing concern in the matter, Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose described the attack on NIA officers as a “very serious issue”. Bose also said that such matters should be treated with the “all seriousness that it deserves”.
-“This is a very serious situation which has to be dealt with all the seriousness that it deserves. This kind of ‘goondaism’ should not be allowed. Muscle power should not replace legal power. This has to be dealt with an iron hand,” Bose told PTI at the Raj Bhavan.
-The incident also garnered huge criticism from BJP, which called the attack to be a proof of “TMC’s Taliban mindset.”
“The attack on the NIA officials is Sandeshkhalli 2.0 orchestrated by the state to put hurdles to the investigation into the bomb blast case. It was not just a coincidence but a well thought out experiment. It was a state-sponsored attack on the NIA officials. The attack was organised by the ruling TMC,” said BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla.
About the Bengal 2022 Blast case
On December 3, 2022, three people lost their lives in an explosion that ripped apart the kutcha house of Rajkumar Manna in Bhupatinagar. Rajkumar Manna, Biswajit Gayen and Buddhadeb Manna were grievously injured in the blast and later died.
The NIA took over the case in June 2023 on the high court’s order dated March 21, 2023.
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Published: 06 Apr 2024, 04:46 PM IST
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