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NIA arrests TMC leader Chhatradhar Mahato in murder case
Chhatradhar Mahato was the poster boy of the Maoist-backed tribal-movement in Lalgarh during 2008-2011 and had been recently inducted into the TMC.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested Trinamool Congress leader Chhatradhar Mahato on Sunday in connection with the murder of a local CP I(M) leader in 2009 at Lalgarh in the Jangalmahal region.
“He was arrested around 3 am when a team of officials almost broke the door and barged into the house. He was almost dragged out and was not shown any papers. He was unwell. Even his security guards were not allowed to come near him,” Niyati Mahato, Chhatradhar’s wife, told the media.
Mahato was the poster boy of the Maoist-backed tribal-movement in Lalgarh that drew national attention during 2008-2011 and had been recently inducted into the TMC.
Earlier on Thursday, the Calcutta high court had directed Mahato, the former leader of Maoist-backed People’’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA), to appear at the NIA office here thrice a week for alleged involvement in the murder case.
The court had further said that if there is any breach of its direction, the NIA can bring it to the notice of a lower court, which, if it deems fit, will thereupon record it and permit the agency to take him into custody.
Earlier Mahato had failed to appear before the special NIA court on a number of occasions citing various reasons.
“I am not going into the merit of the case. But the timing of the arrest is questionable. He was arrested in connection with a decade-old case during assembly elections,” Kunal Ghosh, TMC spokesperson said after Mahato’s arrest.
Mahato, who was recently inducted into the TMC, was given the responsibility of at least 10 constituencies in three districts ahead of the polls. Voting took place on Saturday in 30 seats, including those in Jangalmahal, once a Maoist hotbed, in the first phase of the assembly election.
In February 2020, he was released from jail after 10 years. He was one of the accused in an abortive attempt to blow up former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s convoy in November 2008, and was arrested in September 2009.
In March 2020, however, the NIA reopened a murder case in which Mahato was one of the accused. He was arrested on Sunday, a TMC leader confirmed. The NIA is yet to issue any statement in this regard
“Mahato was released from jail and has been arrested again on court orders. How can there be any politics in it?” said Samik Bhattacharya, BJP’s spokesperson in West Bengal.
Soon after his release from jail in February 2020, Mahatao had started hobnobbing with the TMC leaders. A few months later, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee inducted him into the party and made him one of the secretaries of the party’s state committee.
Political analysts had then said that the move was a part of the effort by TMC to regain votes lost to the BJP not only in Mahato’s native district of Jhargram but also in neighbouring areas of Purulia, West Midnapore and Bankura districts that share historical, geographic and demographic similarities.
The BJP had made deep inroads in these areas in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and had won all five Lok Sabha seats in the Jangalmahal area. The party had won 18 of the 42 seats in the state in 2019 and is now targeting to win more than 200 seats out of the 294 assembly seats in West Bengal.
