The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday arrested Shakir Ali, the husband of former Trinamool MP of Arambag, Aparupa Poddar, for his alleged role in the 2023 Ram Navami violence in Hooghly’s Rishra.
A Trinamool councillor of ward 4 of Rishra Municipality, Shakir, 51, was rounded up from his house on Gandhi Sarak in Rishra after a team of eight NIA officers reached with central forces and local police and questioned him.
“We can’t offer details now. He was arrested for allegedly planning and instigating clashes and arson targeting a religious procession during Ram Navami,” a senior NIA officer said. “CCTV footage suggests his active involvement.”
Shakir’s name surfaced after the NIA took over the investigation into the Ram Navami violence in Hooghly’s Rishra, Howrah’s Shibpur and Dalkhola in North Dinajpur between March and April 2023.
Calcutta High Court had ordered the transfer of the cases from the state police to the NIA after it emerged that the investigators in Bengal had not registered the cases under the Explosive Substances Act despite the use of crude bombs and petrol bombs in the attacks.
Shakir’s arrest came a day after the Bengal Assembly passed two bills to identify “goondas”, hold them in preventive detention for up to a year and confiscate and auction their assets to secure compensation for damage to public or private property.
In Rishra, violence broke out during and after a Ram Navami procession on the evening of April 2, 2023. Two communities clashed after a Ram Navami procession, comprising around 1,000 participants, reached near the Baro Masjid, adjoining Wellington Jute Mill. Heavy brick-batting, stone pelting and arson followed, leaving several police personnel and BJP’s Pursurah MLA Biman Ghosh injured. Several shops and police vehicles were damaged.
Violence again erupted the night after with groups targeting police with sticks and stones near gate 4 of Rishra station.
Of 23 wards that comprise Rishra Municipality, the violence, the police said, was confined to six — wards 1-5 and ward 23.
“Of these six wards, 1-5 have significant minority population. Ward 4, for instance, has around 65 per cent and ward 5, around 85 per cent minority population,” a senior municipality official said.
Trinamool sources said Shakir, an avid cricket and football lover, was first elected councillor in 2015 and retained his seat in subsequent elections.
BJP spokesperson Debjit Sarkar said Shakir’s role in the violence was well known.
The police filed an FIR against his wife, Poddar, for obstructing their duty and heckling them, and asked her to come to the Serampore police station on Wednesday.
Mothabari case
The NIA on Tuesday submitted the second chargesheet against 23 persons in two specific cases related to the incident of alleged attack, confinement, and harassment of judicial officers in Malda’s Mothabari in April 2026. The accused have been booked under several sections of the BNS, including attempt to murder, obstructing public servants from doing their duty, and wrongful restraint.