Criminals 'bully' and threat polling officer's mother at Pyradanga
Telegraph | 30 March 2026
Police on Saturday arrested two officials of the Nadia district administration on charges of assaulting a polling officer during a training session in Ranaghat on Friday, while unidentified goons allegedly barged inside his home in Pyradanga and threatened his mother with dire consequences.
Accused Manas Bandyopadhyay and Nazimuddin Sardar, clerks of the Hanshkhali block development office, were produced in court in Ranaghat and later granted bail.
The arrests made late on Friday followed a complaint by assaulted polling officer Saikat Chatterjee, a schoolteacher from Pyradanga.
On Friday, at Ranaghat Debnath Institution for Boys, a training venue for polling personnel, Chatterjee objected to the screening of a video related to the inauguration of the Jagannath temple in Digha by chief minister Mamata Banerjee, terming it a violation of the model code. His protest allegedly led to his assault.
The Election Commission had sought a detailed report from the district administration. On Saturday, the DM submitted the report.
When goons allegedly entered Chatterjee’s home to threaten his mother on Saturday, he was in Calcutta as part of a delegation comprising schoolteachers and members of the Sangrami Joutho Mancha — a collective of state government employee unions — to request the chief electoral officer for a probe into the incident and better security for polling officers. He alleged that those who threatened his mother were "ruling party-backed goons”.
His kin lodged a fresh complaint with Ranaghat police, but no action has been taken yet. However, the district administration said cops would be posted near his home from Saturday night.