Kolkata, May 26 (IANS): The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested 15 more accused in connection with the April 1 incident in which seven judicial officers were held hostage during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise at Mothabari in Malda district of West Bengal, taking the total number of arrests in the case to 65. The arrests followed massive raid and search operations by NIA sleuths across different locations in Malda district that began on Monday night and continued till Tuesday morning, with the accused identified based on CCTV footage from Mothabari on the night of April 1. The 15 accused, arrested from the Mothabari and Kaliachak areas, will be presented before a special NIA court in Kolkata on Tuesday. The judicial officers, appointed by the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, had been working to dispose of names on the judicial adjudication list under consideration by the SIR when the incident took place.
On April 1, the judicial officers posted at Mothabari were surrounded by a group of violent protesters opposed to the SIR exercise, who kept them hostage at the Kaliachak-2 block office till late at night, with allegations of harassment also levelled against the protesters. It was alleged that a section of those whose names were omitted from the SIR list had led the protests. The Election Commission of India handed over the investigation to the NIA on the order of the Supreme Court, though prior to the takeover, the CID of the state police had arrested advocate Mofakkerul Islam, whom it claimed was one of the masterminds of the protest. Following the NIA takeover, the agency has been systematically identifying and arresting accused persons one after another. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court directed the NIA to wind up the investigation at the earliest, with Chief Justice of India Surya Kanta ordering that security arrangements for the judicial officers involved in the SIR exercise remain in place till further orders. The NIA submitted its status report on the investigation to the apex court on May 11.