Kolkata, Feb 12 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday arrested a proclaimed offender who had been absconding since 2021 in connection with a post-poll violence case following the West Bengal Assembly elections that year.

The arrested accused has been identified as Nazir Hossen. According to a statement issued by the CBI on Thursday afternoon, he was apprehended from the residence of his father-in-law in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.

The CBI began investigating post-poll violence cases in the state following an order of the Calcutta High Court in 2021. In one such case, it was alleged that Nazir Hossen, in criminal conspiracy with other accused persons, surrounded Hasnur Zaman — a victim of the post-poll violence — on the morning of May 2, 2021, while armed with firearms, hand bombs and iron rods.

The agency alleged that Zaman was killed by bombs hurled at him and that the murder was rooted in political rivalry and a dispute over the construction of a clubhouse on land belonging to a mosque.

Nazir Hossen, along with 12 other accused persons, was charge-sheeted by the CBI under various sections of the erstwhile Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Explosive Substances Act and the Indian Explosives Act. The case is currently under trial before a district court at Barasat in North 24 Parganas.

According to the CBI, Hossen had been evading arrest since the inception of the case in 2021. “He has been arrested by CBI based on human intelligence and technical inputs. The arrested proclaimed offender was produced before the lower court at Barasat on Thursday and has been remanded to judicial custody,” the agency’s statement said.

Several senior leaders of the ruling Trinamool Congress, including a veteran legislator, had earlier come under the scanner of the CBI in connection with various post-poll violence cases in West Bengal. Convictions have also been secured in some of these cases from time to time.

However, leaders of the state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in West Bengal have frequently expressed dissatisfaction over what they described as the slow pace of the investigation by the central agency.

–IANS

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