Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday repeated his call for “zero tolerance” against crime and said that 23 of the 24 accused named in the FIR in the Tamanna Khatun murder had been arrested.
He alleged that the delay in arrests occurred because the erstwhile Trinamool government had allowed goons to roam free.
Tamanna, a 10-year-old from Molandi village in Nadia’s Kaliganj, was killed in a crude bomb attack by alleged Trinamool-backed goons on June 23, 2025, the day of Kaliganj bypoll results, when workers of the then ruling party reportedly went about attacking homes of CPM supporters. In her complaint, Tamanna’s mother Sabina Yasmin accused 24 persons. Till June 22, 2026, police had arrested only 11.
Speaking to reporters at Bagnan in Howrah after meeting the bereaved kin of BJP worker Prasanta Dey, who was beaten to death during a clash allegedly involving Trinamool workers on the night of June 17, 2026, Suvendu alleged that the delay in arresting the remaining accused in the Tamanna murder case was politically motivated.
“The accused had been allowed to roam free to ensure a vote bank,” Suvendu alleged.
According to sources, the pace of the probe changed dramatically within hours of Sabina meeting Suvendu on June 23 as part of a CPM delegation led by Domkal MLA Mustafizur Rahman and party leader Minakshi Mukherjee. Between Tuesday and Friday night, cops arrested 12 accused, in groups of two, three and seven, two even from Gurgaon and Nagpur.
Referring to Prasanta’s murder, Suvendu said: “Ten persons have been arrested so far. I have instructed the police and the CID to trace and arrest the remaining 41 out of 51 accused named in the FIR, wherever they are. If a criminal like Pushpa (Trinamool’s Jahangir Khan) can be arrested from the Nepal border, these criminals are smaller fry.”
“In Bengal, the rule of law has been established instead of the ruler’s law,” he claimed.