India's political landscape is ablaze with activity! From the ongoing debates surrounding the new farm bills and their impact on rural India, to the upcoming state elections shaping the national narrative, the stakes couldn't be higher. Key political figures are maneuvering strategically, with alliances shifting and power dynamics constantly in flux. The opposition's challenge to the ruling party is intensifying, sparking vigorous debates on crucial policy matters including economic reforms and social justice initiatives. Parliamentary proceedings are filled with heated exchanges, reflecting the deep divisions within the nation. This evolving political climate directly impacts the lives of every Indian citizen, influencing everything from economic opportunities to social welfare programs. Stay informed about the latest developments in Indian politics, from crucial legislative decisions to grassroots movements, by exploring Abtak.com for in-depth analysis and breaking news updates. Understanding the intricacies of our political system is crucial; stay engaged, stay informed, and stay ahead.
Kolkata, Apr 2 (PTI) Police on Thursday arrested at least 17 people, including a poll candidate, for their alleged involvement in the gherao of seven judicial officials in West Bengal's Malda district over the deletion of names from electoral rolls, a senior officer said. Indian Secular Front (ISF) candidate Maulana Shahjahan Ali and 16 others were arrested and produced before a district court, he said, adding that they were remanded to 10 days of police custody. "These people were involved in last night's incident in Malda. We have got concrete evidence. They will be questioned," the policeman said. The arrests follow an incident on Wednesday at the Kaliachak II block office, under Mothabari Assembly constituency, where seven judicial officials, engaged in voter list-related work, were allegedly confined for over seven-and-a-half hours by a group of protesters at a BDO office. Three of the officials were women. After his arrest, Ali denied the charges and claimed he was being framed due to his political affiliation. "I have been falsely implicated because I am an ISF candidate," he told reporters while being produced in court. He also claimed he was not present at the site during the incident. "I had gone to attend a religious gathering and was returning home when I was arrested. There is a conspiracy against me," he said. Police are investigating the incident and have not ruled out further arrests. PTI SCH MNB
Kolkata, Apr 2 (PTI) Seven judicial officers engaged in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) were rescued after protesters gheraoed them for several hours in West Bengal's Malda district over the deletion of names from the electoral rolls, officials said on Thursday. Security forces used batons to disperse the crowd and rescued the judicial officers, including three women, late at night on Wednesday. Alleging large-scale removal of names of voters in the SIR process, the protesters also blocked National Highway 12 (Kolkata-Siliguri) on Wednesday. The judicial officers including three women, ...Read More >
New Delhi, Apr 2 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Thursday took serious note of seven judicial officials engaged in SIR exercise being taken "hostage" in West Bengal's Malda district, terming it deplorable and seeking responses from the state home secretary, DGP and other officials for their "inaction". A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi permitted the Election Commission to seek either CBI or NIA probe into the unfortunate incident. It said the incident appears to be a "calculated" and "motivated move to demoralise judicial officers" and to stop t ...Read More >
Malda: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday claimed that while the real culprits behind the violence and gherao of judicial officers in Malda district's Mothabari have escaped, the NIA is picking up innocent local people and harassing them. Addressing an election rally at Manikchak in Malda, she urged the gathering not to approach judicial officers scrutinising 'under adjudication' cases post-SIR, instead submit applications before tribunals for re-inclusion of names of those e ...Read More >
The Supreme Court on Monday directed the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to probe into the incident of mob violence in West Bengal's Malda district, where seven judicial officers were held hostage for eight hours, during a protest against the removal of names in the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The court further took a dig at the state chief secretary for being "obstinate" in not being accessible to the high court chief justice on the day of the incident, that also in ...Read More >
Malda/Kolkata: NIA recorded the statement of one of the judicial officers held hostage at the Kaliachak-II BDO office on April 1 and secured two weeks of police custody of main accused Mofakkerul Islam on Saturday. Sources said questioning has led to the detention of three more people, though no fresh arrests were confirmed by late evening.The agency's teams visited multiple locations through the day -- beginning at the Kaliachak-II BDO office, then Mothabari police station and later the SP's off ...Read More >
Pune: The Indian Gig Workers' Front on Saturday evening suspended the ongoing strike of cabs and autorickshaws operating on applications till Tuesday, after leaving many commuters, including those arriving at the airport on Saturday morning, hassled. Keshav Kshirsagar, the president of the front, said, "We have a meeting on Tuesday with senior officials of the state transport department. If its decisions don't meet our expectations, the strike will resume." Several commuters had a harrowing experience on roads on Friday and in the early hours of Saturday. Cabs and autos were hard to come by. T ...Read More >
Kolkata, Apr 2 (PTI) The Election Commission has handed over the probe into the gherao of seven judicial officers engaged in the Special Intensive Revision exercise in West Bengal's Malda to the NIA as the incident plunged the state into fresh turmoil, with the TMC and the BJP blaming each other for it. While Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accused Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the poll panel of fomenting unrest to facilitate President's rule in the poll-bound state, the BJP alleged the TMC had orchestrated the Wednesday protest to protect "bogus voters". As political confrontations inten ...Read More >
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has started probe by registering a "preliminary enquiry" into Malda violence case in which thousands of people on Wednesday blocked the two gates of the Kaliachowk-2 Block Development Office (BDO), holding staff including seven judicial officers "hostage" for hours before they were rescued after midnight. The anti-terror agency initiated the preliminary enquiry late on Thursday after the Election Commission of India (ECI) formally referred the matter, sending a letter to its Director General. The ECI's direction to the NIA came following the Supreme Co ...Read More >
New Delhi [India], April 3 (ANI): Congress Member of Parliament Pramod Tiwari on Friday condemned the recent violence in West Bengal's Malda, stating that democratic elections must remain free from any form of intimidation or fear. Speaking to ANI, Tiwari accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of "misusing" the Election Commission and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. "In a democracy, elections should be fair, without any fear or intimidation. In Bengal, the BJP is misusing the entire Election Commission and the SIR to the fullest extent possible, whereas the truth is that the Elect ...Read More >
Harirampur: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday blamed the AIMIM and ISF for the gherao of judicial officers in Malda district and accused the Congress and the BJP of instigation. Stating that the mastermind behind Wednesday's gherao of the judicial officers for several hours in Malda district's Mothabari was arrested by the state's CID, Banerjee claimed that this police organisation is still under her control and not of the Election Commission. "The BJP loaned him (the accused) from the AIMIM and brought him here," she alleged, while addressing an election rally at Harirampu ...Read More >
Cooch Behar, Apr 5 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday made the Malda gherao of judicial officers the centrepiece of the BJP's campaign on lawlessness in West Bengal, alleging it reflected the TMC's "sponsored maha jungleraj" and framing the assembly polls as a battle between the "bhay" (fear) spread by the ruling party and the BJP's "bharosa" (trust). Addressing his first rally in Bengal after the election schedule was announced, Modi used the Malda incident to sharpen the BJP's twin campaign planks of collapsing law and order and alleged demographic change, while also invoking issu ...Read More >
New Delhi, Apr 6 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to take over cases related to the gherao of seven judicial officers in Malda, observing that the bureaucracy's credibility was being lowered and politics was being injected into the West Bengal secretariat and government offices. A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi exercised its plenary power under Article 142 of the Constitution to transfer around 12 cases related to the April 1 incident, as rioting is not a scheduled offence under the NIA Act. ...Read More >
MADURAI: Likening the custodial murder of Ajith Kumar in Tiruppuvanam to an 'organised crime by police where the state kills its own citizens,' Madras high court lambasted the Tamil Nadu police and said the action against the perpetrators should be more stringent than in normal murder cases.A division bench of Justice S M Subramaniam and Justice A D Maria Clete pointed to 44 external injuries on the person of Ajith Kumar and said no part of the body was spared by the delinquent cops. "Even an ordinary murderer would not have inflicted such kind of injuries," the bench said on Tuesday.The natur ...Read More >
New Delhi, Apr 7 (PTI) The BJP on Tuesday accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of "spreading fear" among voters and alleged that the ruling TMC is obstructing free and fair elections in the state. Addressing a press conference here, senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad countered Banerjee's claim that central forces were being deployed to target voters and said the remarks reflect "desperation" in the face of an impending electoral defeat. "It seems that she is facing a certain and heavy defeat. Mamata ji, you are now in desperation. When a leader becomes desperate, they start ...Read More >
Dehradun, Sep 26 (PTI) The standoff between the agitating students and the state government over a CBI probe into the alleged paper leak in the Uttarakhand Subordinate Services Selection Commission (UKSSSC) exam continued on Friday, with the opposition Congress also staging a statewide sit-in over the demand. The state government's efforts to persuade the protesters, who had set up a tent outside the Parade Ground here and staged an indefinite sit-in protest under the banner of the Uttarakhand Unemployed Union, protesting the alleged leak of three pages of a question paper from the graduate-l ...Read More >
KOLKATA: Seven judicial officers involved in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process were allegedly gheraoed for hours in West Bengal's Malda district following protests over deletion of names from electoral rolls, officials said.The protest began earlier in the day outside the Kaliachak II Block Development Office and continued late into the night. According to officials, demonstrators initially sought a meeting with the judicial officers. When they were denied entry, they launched a protest around 4 pm and eventually surrounded the office premises.Among those stranded inside were three ...Read More >
Kolkata, Apr 3 (PTI) The West Bengal Police on Friday arrested the alleged mastermind of the gherao of seven judicial officers in Malda district from Siliguri's Bagdogra airport, a senior officer said. The accused, identified as advocate Mofakkarul Islam, was arrested while he was trying to board a flight, he said. "He is the mastermind of the Kaliachak incident in which seven judicial officers were gheraoed inside a BDO office for several hours on Wednesday night. He was trying to board a flight to flee," the officer told PTI. With the latest apprehension, the police have so far arrested 3 ...Read More >
Malda (West Bengal) [India], April 3 (ANI): A team from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday arrived at the Block Development Officer's (BDO) office in Malda in connection with the recent incident, where thousands of people on April 1 blocked the two gates of the Kaliachak-II BDO, holding staff including seven judicial officers "hostage" for hours before they were rescued after midnight. Earlier in the day, the anti-terror agency initiated the preliminary enquiry late on Thursday after the Election Commission of India (ECI) formally referred the matter, sending a letter to its Di ...Read More >
Kolkata, Apr 5 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday made the Malda gherao of judicial officers the fulcrum of the BJP's campaign on lawlessness in West Bengal, accusing the TMC government of running a "maha jungleraj" and pitching the 2026 assembly polls as a straight contest between the "bhay" spread by the ruling party and the BJP's "bharosa". Addressing his first election rally in Cooch Behar in north Bengal after the poll schedule was announced, Modi used the Malda incident to sharpen the BJP's twin campaign planks of "poor law and order" and alleged demographic change, besides th ...Read More >
New Delhi/Kolkata, Apr 2 (PTI) Observing that West Bengal was the "most polarised state", the Supreme Court on Thursday delivered a stinging indictment of the state administration after seven judicial officers engaged in SIR exercise were held hostage by protesters in Malda district and directed a CBI or NIA probe into the incident. Slamming the administration for its "complete failure" and inaction over the "deplorable" gherao and attack on the officers during the Special Intensive Revision(SIR) of the voters list, the court also asked the EC to "requisition adequate Central Forces and deplo ...Read More >
New Delhi, Apr 2 (PTI) The Election Commission on Thursday handed over the probe into the gherao of judicial officers adjudicating cases of Special Intensive Revision in West Bengal's Malda to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). A spokesperson of the poll authority said an NIA team would be in the poll-bound state on Friday. The Supreme Court Thursday slammed the West Bengal administration for its "complete failure" and inaction over the "deplorable" gherao and attack on seven judicial officers in Malda district during the electoral rolls revision drive and directed a CBI or NIA probe b ...Read More >
Kolkata : The West Bengal Police on Friday arrested two persons, including the alleged mastermind of the gherao of seven judicial officers in Malda district, from Siliguri's Bagdogra airport, a senior officer said. The alleged mastermind, identified as advocate Mofakkarul Islam, was arrested while he was trying to board a flight, he said. "He is the mastermind of the Kaliachak incident in which seven judicial officers were gheraoed inside a block office for several hours on Wednesday night. He was trying to board a flight to flee," the officer told PTI. Speaking to reporters, ADG (North Beng ...Read More >
Kolkata: A former AIMIM candidate was arrested on Friday over the gherao of the seven judicial officers in Malda district, adding a fresh political twist to the case as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee blamed the Asaduddin Owasi-led party, the BJP, and the ISF for "engineering" the unrest. An NIA team visited Mothabari and Kaliachak police stations in Malda to probe the Wednesday incident. The federal anti-terror probe agency has been tasked by the Election Commission to investigate the matter, following a directive from the Supreme Court. Advocate Mofakkarul Islam, described by the police as ...Read More >
New Delhi, Apr 8 (PTI) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday registered 12 cases to probe a gherao of judicial officers, who were deputed for work relating to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in West Bengal's Malda. The move came following a directive from the Supreme Court. In a late-night statement, the NIA said it has "re-registered 07 FIRs of PS Mothabari and 05 FIRs of PS Kalichak of District Malda, West Bengal for investigation", in compliance with a Supreme Court order dated April 6, "relating to the safety and security of judicial officers de ...Read More >
New Delhi [India], April 3 (ANI): Russia's First Deputy Chairman Denis Manturov reaffirmed that Russian companies have the capacity to steadily increase supplies of oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the Indian market amid the energy crisis due to the conflict in West Asia, underlining deepening energy cooperation between the two countries during his official visit to the country. According to a statement issued by the Russian Embassy in India on Telegram on Thursday, Manturov highlighted that Russia had boosted supplies of in-demand mineral fertilisers to India by 40 per cent by the end ...Read More >
Kolkata, Apr 1 (PTI) The Chief Electoral Officer's office in West Bengal on Wednesday flagged alleged "anti-social activity" outside its premises and warned that any attempt to disrupt the poll process would invite strict action. In a post on X, the CEO's office alleged that a councillor from Kolkata's Beleghata, accompanied by miscreants, had gathered outside the office late on Tuesday night and raised slogans. "Councillor Beleghata, with some hooligans, gheraoed the CEO's office and shouted slogans in the dead of night. Such anti-social activities will not be tolerated, and the law will ta ...Read More >
Kolkata, Apr 4 (PTI) A team of NIA officials, probing the gherao of seven judicial officers engaged in the SIR exercise, videographed the incident spot on the second day of their visit to Mothabari in Malda on Saturday, a senior district official said. The NIA has been tasked by the Election Commission to investigate the Wednesday incident, following a directive from the Supreme Court, which has censured the West Bengal administration over the issue. The 24-member team of the federal anti-terror probe agency, led by a DIG-ranked official, videographed the Mothabari BDO office and the area ou ...Read More >
New Delhi, July 19 (PTI) The Regional Medical Research Centre in Bhubaneswar, under the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), has developed an advanced malaria vaccine that can prevent plasmodium falciparum infection in individuals and minimise community transmission. The ICMR Delhi has invited Expressions of Interest (EoI) from eligible organisations, companies and manufacturers enthusiastic about the Transfer of Technology for commercial production of "a recombinant chimeric multi-stage malaria vaccine (AdFalciVax) against plasmodium falciparum". The pre-clinical validation of this te ...Read More >
Kolkata: The Election Commission of India on Thursday handed over the probe into the gherao of the seven judicial officers in West Bengal's Malda district to the NIA, following a Supreme Court directive. Observing that West Bengal was the "most polarised state", the Supreme Court delivered a stinging indictment of the state administration after seven judicial officers engaged in SIR exercise were held hostage by protesters in Malda district and directed a CBI or NIA probe into the incident. In an April 2 letter to the National Investigating Agency, the poll body referred to the apex court's ...Read More >
KOLKATA/MALDA: The Bengal police on Friday arrested former AIMIM candidate and lawyer Mofakrul Islam from Bagdogra airport in Siliguri in connection with the violence and hostage situation occurred in Malda district.Mofakrul Islam was allegedly trying to board a flight and flee.Investigators have termed him a key conspirator in the Kaliachak gherao of judicial officers, as the case snowballed into a major law-and-order and political flashpoint ahead of the West Bengal elections. Islam, who contested the 2021 assembly elections from Itahar in North Dinajpur, came under the scanner after videos ...Read More >