The Election Commission has suspended three personnel from the central armed police forces after a video surfaced online allegedly showing them playing carrom inside a Trinamool Congress office in Siliguri, a senior official said on Sunday. An internal probe has been initiated into the incident.

BJP candidate for Siliguri Assembly constituency, Jagannath Chatterjee, condemned the incident, calling it "extremely reprehensible and disappointing." "It is unclear how and where the central forces are being deployed. If the local administration or police had a role in this carrom game, strict action should be taken against them as well," Chatterjee said.

Congress district president Sanjay Adhikari expressed similar concern, saying, "Playing carrom is not a crime, but doing so inside a political party's office is inappropriate." Responding to the controversy, TMC district co-vice president Malay Mukherjee said, "Those who were working here understand that casually interacting with TMC is not a crime. That is probably why they were talking and playing carrom."

This is the second such incident, with the first being when the EC acted against seven paramilitary personnel for attending an iftar event in Nimtita in Murshidabad during poll duty in Bengal. The incident had forced EC to take disciplinary action by putting two officers under the custody of the central force while the remaining five were transferred out of state.