Kolkata, May 26 (IANS) A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Kolkata on Tuesday remanded 15 more accused persons arrested by the central agency officers in connection with the West Bengal judicial officers’ hostage case earlier this year to 14 days of judicial custody.

In the night-long operations started from Monday night which continued till Tuesday morning, the NIA sleuths arrested these 15 individuals accused in connection with the April 1 incident in which seven judicial officers were held hostage during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) phase at Mothabari in Malda district.

After arresting them following nightlong raids and search operations from various places at Mothabari and Kaliachak in Malda district, the NIA sleuths brought the 15 accused to the state capital of Kolkata and presented them at a special court of the NIA in the city on Tuesday afternoon.

After a brief hearing in the matter, the judge of the special court remanded these 15 accused in the case to 14 days of judicial custody.

With the arrests of these 15 accused persons, the total number of arrests in the case had increased to 65.

These judicial officers were appointed by Justice Sujoy Paul, the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, and were working to dispose of the names on the judicial adjudication list under consideration by the SIR.

On April 1 this year, the judicial officers posted at Mothabari were surrounded by a group of violent protesters protesting against the SIR exercise. They kept the judicial officers hostage at the Kaliachak-2 block office till late night.

Seven judicial officers were detained. There were also allegations of harassment levelled against them.

It was alleged that a section of those whose names were omitted from the SIR list led the protests.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) handed over the investigation of the incident to the NIA on the order of the Supreme Court.

However, before that, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of West Bengal Police arrested one of the accused in the case, Mofakkerul Islam, an advocate by profession.

The CID claimed in court that Islam was one of the masterminds of this protest programme. Soon after, NIA took over the investigation and started identifying and arresting the accused persons one after another.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court directed the NIA to conclude the investigation in the matter at the earliest.

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant ordered that security arrangements for the judicial officers involved in the SIR exercise would remain as they are, till further orders.

The NIA submitted its status report on the investigation in the matter to the apex court on May 11.

–IANS

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