Day after arrest by NIA, Trinamool candidate wins gram panchayat seat

Kolkata: Manoj Ghosh, the Trinamool Congress candidate from a gram panchayat seat under the Nalhati Assembly constituency in Birbhum district, who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), has been declared as the winner from the seat he was contesting.

His winning margin is 309 votes. He was arrested by the NIA on Monday in connection with the recovery of 81,000 detonators from Birbhum district last year.

The district leadership of Trinamool Congress in Birbhum seems to be elated over the victory of Ghosh on Tuesday.

"Despite being unnecessarily harassed and arrested by the central agency sleuths on the insistence of the BJP and the Union government, Ghosh's victory proves that he continues to enjoy the public confidence in the area. The more BJP will unleash the central agencies against us the more we will enjoy the public sympathy and confidence," a district committee member of Trinamool Congress in Birbhum said.

However, the district BJP leadership has pointed out Ghosh's marginal victory margin comes amidst massive poll- related violence in the area on the polling day of July 8, where the opposition agents were driven out of the polling booths and people were not allowed to vote freely.

Ghosh was summoned by the NIA sleuths at Nalhati police station in Birbhum district. After being questioned for hours, he was finally arrested by the central agency sleuths on Monday afternoon.

Earlier in April this year, NIA submitted a charge sheet at a special court of NIA on this count.

The charge sheet was filed within 90 days since the NIA sleuths took up the investigation in the matter. As many 81,000 detonators were recovered from a passenger- van in the Muhammadbazar area of Birbhum district on June 30, 2022. The detonators were seized by the sleuths of the Special Task Force (STF) of state police. Three persons were also arrested by the STF sleuths in this connection, the first from Raniganj area in West Burdwan district and the other two from Dhuliyan area in Murshidabad district.

The NIA took charge of the investigation on September 29 of the same year.