Hubby gets bail, ex-MP collapses after 4-hr-long interrogation
Times of India | 4 July 2026
Serampore: A special NIA court on Friday granted interim bail to Trinamool councillor Shakir Ali, husband of ex-MP Aparupa Poddar. Ali was arrested on June 30 in connection with the 2023 Ram Navami violence in Hooghly’s Rishra.
Ali’s bail hearing coincided with Poddar appearing for questioning before police in Serampore for allegedly obstructing her husband’s arrest. The former MP arrived dressed in a lawyer’s robe and was interrogated for nearly four hours.
Right after she came out of the police station, Poddar collapsed. She was rushed to Serampore’s Walsh Hospital on an e-rickshaw and was later allowed to go home.
Ali had applied for bail on medical grounds. His lawyer, Fazle Ahmed Khan, said his client was undergoing treatment for suspected cancer and required regular medical tests.
The court directed Ali to report to the NIA office every 15 days and barred him from travelling out of Bengal without permission.
The case against Ali stems from violence that broke out during a Ram Navami procession in Rishra in 2023, involving crude bomb attacks, vandalism and arson.
The NIA court, while granting bail, noted Ali was not named in the original FIR, that other accused in the case had already secured bail, and that investigation in the case had gone on for three years since the registration of the FIR.