Kolkata, April 2 (IANS) Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Gyanesh Kumar, at a virtual meeting on Thursday, directed the West Bengal Police to ensure the arrest of every culprit behind the harassment of seven judicial adjudication officers at Kaliachak in Malda district at the earliest by midnight.

At the meeting, West Bengal Director General of Police Siddh Nath Gupta and the Malda district police superintendent, Anupam Singh faced the ire of the CEC for delayed response by the state police in rescuing the seven judicial officers, including three women, who were virtually held hostage for more than seven hours by a group of people protesting at Kaliachak over the deletion of their names in the voters’ list during the ongoing judicial adjudication of cases classified under the “logical discrepancy” category.

The meeting was attended, among others, by the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal, the State Chief Secretary, Dushyant Nariala and the State Home Secretary, Sanghamitra Ghosh, among others.

An insider from the State CEO’s office, aware of the developments at the meeting, said that CEC expressed ire both over the delayed action by the police in rescuing the judicial adjudication officers on Wednesday night, as well as on the sustained protests for the last two days in front of the State CEO’s office in Kolkata.

“The CEC also raised questions on lack of police action in controlling the tension near the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s residence in South Kolkata, while the convoy of the Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Suvendu Adhikari was proceeding towards Alipore Survey Building for LoP Adhikari to file his nomination from Bhabanipur Assembly constituency in South Kolkata there,” the CEO’s office insider said.

Present at the meeting was the Kolkata Police Commissioner Ajay Nand, who also faced the ire of CEC Kumar over the incident near the Chief Minister’s residence.

In the meeting, the West Bengal CEO’s office insider added that the CEC also raised the question of why the Malda district police superintendent did not turn up at the spot and instead sent the additional district police superintendent there.

“The CEC also raised the question of why the judicial adjudication officers, who were held hostage on Wednesday, could not contact the Malda District Magistrate (Rajanvir Singh Kapur) on his mobile phone,” the CEO’s office insider said.

–IANS

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