The officers were booked under Section 354 (molestation) and 441 (trespassing) of the Indian Penal Code, among others.
According to the police, the action against the two officials was taken after a complaint filed by the wife of Manabroto Jana, who along with Balai Charan Maity was picked by the probe agency on Saturday. The NIA has accused Jana and Maity of being the “key conspirators” in the Bhupatinagar blast case in which three persons were killed in December 2022. The two were found to have conspired to manufacture and explode crude bombs to spread terror, it has claimed.
It was while the NIA team was returning after making the arrests that it was allegedly attacked as an aggressive crowd tried to stop them. The NIA had also filed a written complaint in connection with the attack but no arrests have been made in the incident so far.
In the complaint filed at Bhupatinagar police station late Saturday night, Jana’s wife has alleged that the NIA officers had broken the door of the house and harassed the family.
Calls made by The Indian Express to Superintendent of Police (Purba Medinipur) Soumyadip Bhattacharya went unanswered.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the NIA said its actions “were bonafide, lawful and legally mandated” and were a “part of an ongoing investigation into the heinous crime related to fabrication of crude bombs, leading to an explosion that killed three persons in Naruabila village, PS Bhupatinagar, district Purba Medinipur in West Bengal”.
Alleging that the attack on its officers was “unprovoked”, the agency stated: “The attack was completely unprovoked and uncalled for, and an attempt to obstruct NIA from carrying out its lawful duties… The searches were conducted at five locations in the presence of independent witnesses, and under the security cover provided by CRPF, which included lady constables. The arrests were made after following all lawful procedures.”
Describing the attack on the NIA personnel while they were taking Jana and Maity to the local police station, the probe agency said: “One NIA official sustained injuries and an official vehicle of NIA was also damaged in the attack. The NIA has already filed a complaint at the area police station seeking legal action against the assailants.”
The NIA claimed that Jana and Maity had failed to join the investigation despite repeated summons. It had, accordingly, filed an application before the Special NIA Court, Kolkata, which, after perusing the case records, had issued an order on April 3, 2024, stating that it found the allegations to be of “very serious nature”.
“The special court had also observed that the agency was “at liberty to proceed with the investigation as expeditiously as possible, and to take all necessary action with regard to arrest, search and seizure of the houses of the suspects/accused persons,” the NIA said in its statement.
The NIA had taken over the probe in the 2022 case on June 6 2023 on the directions of the Calcutta High Court.
Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Dr Aariz Aftab has sought a report from the police over the Bhupatinagar incident.
The incident which comes months after a similar attack on an Enforcement Directorate team in Sandeshkhali region of North 24 Parganas district has stoked sharp reactions from both the ruling TMC and the Opposition. On January 5, an ED team was attacked near the house of TMC strongman Shahjahan Sheikh in Sandeshkhali. He was wanted in connection with the ration distribution ‘scam’. Sheikh was finally arrested on February 29 after being on the run for around two months.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said the levelling of molestation charges against NIA officials who were “performing their duties” indicated a “collapse of constitutional bodies”.
“Attacking a central agency means attacking the Indian Constitution. Booking NIA officials under molestation charges for performing their duties is indication of the collapse of all constitutional bodies. They have launched a war against the Indian constitution,” said BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) accused the state government of “provoking” the NIA team. “The state government is provoking (the NIA). The NIA (team was) attacked, the police didn’t arrest anyone involved in that incident rather they have booked NIA officials, which is so unfortunate. What do you expect when the CM herself is sending the message that a central agency cannot act against them,” said CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty.
The TMC, on the other hand, accused the central agencies of launching a “witch-hunt” against its leaders and workers. “The incident took place in December 2022. Just because it is Bengal and it’s a TMC-led government, hence after elections were announced, all agencies were alerted. There is a witch-hunt against TMC leaders. They (central agencies) are going around harassing people at midnight. The women have all rights to file a complaint. Every person in Bengal understands BJP’s strategy,” said TMC leader Joy Prakash Majumdar.
On Saturday, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had said that the NIA did “not seek police permission” for its operations and hence “whatever was supposed to happen has happened”.
“Without informing the local police, you will use the BJP’s police and will torture women in villages in the name of NIA…. What do you expect? The women will sit silently and not protest and resist? Thus, whatever was supposed to happen has happened,” she said at an election rally at Balurghat.
Later speaking to media persons, Banerjee had said, “Why did they (NIA) raid at midnight? Did they have police permission? Locals reacted in the way they would have if any stranger comes to the place at midnight. Why are they arresting people right before the elections?… We call upon the world to fight the BJP’s dirty politics.”