A police report has indicated that the attack on the seven judicial officers in Malda on April 1 was pre-meditated and not a spontaneous eruption of anger over the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls underway in Bengal.
That evening, when the seven judicial officers were inside the Kaliachak-I block development officer’s office, a 100-strong mob had assembled outside.
The report, submitted by Mothabari police, states that the arrests were made after identifying those who were at the spot that night and provoked the mob to hurl stones at the vehicles of the judicial officers and the security teams for their protection.
The judicial officers, engaged with the process of deciding on the cases of voters marked “under adjudication” in the final rolls, were held hostage till late into the night with “no help forthcoming,” per the report.
Calls were made to Calcutta and the local administration to rescue the judicial officers, but till close to midnight no attempts were made to ensure their safe passage, it says.
According to the report, though the cops had pushed back those blocking the BDO office to let the convoy pass, another group of around 100 protesters had barricaded a portion of the highway near a place called Haibatla.
When the convoy reached that particular spot, the mob started pelting stones. The vehicles carrying the judicial officers, the central forces personnel and the police were hit.
Sub-inspector Atul Thakur and several other jawans were injured in the brickbatting, though the convoy kept rolling.
A brick hit the driver of one of the vehicles, Ramprasad Mandal, near Gangaprasad Colony and he lost control of the vehicle. He was later rescued and taken to Malda General Hospital where he remains in critical condition.
The report said the mob threatened the injured jawans in the vehicle that Mandal was driving.
Till Friday morning, the police had arrested 35 people including the alleged mastermind of the violence, Mofakkerul Islam, and Maulana Shahjahan Ali, the ISF candidate from Mothabari Assembly constituency..
A 24-member team from the National Investigation Agency led by IG Sonia Singh reached Malda on Friday. The team visited the Mothabari and Kaliachak police stations.
The Supreme Court had fumed at the attack on the judicial officers and had on Thursday instructed that either the CBI or the NIA should handle the probe.
Among other aspects of the case the NIA team will also probe why the judicial officers were not moved out of the BDO office as the mob outside grew in size.
“Everything will be probed and the guilty will be punished,” said a senior police officer.
