NIA seeks TMC leader Mahato’s house arrest in connection with murder case
Mahato, the former poster boy of the Maoist-backed tribal movement that grabbed national headlines between 2008 and 2011, was recently inducted into the ruling TMC party after serving a jail term of eleven years.
kolkata Updated: Sep 29, 2020, 06:06 IST
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has sought Chhatradhar Mahato, a leader of the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, to be put under house arrest in connection with a murder of a CPIM leader in 2009 in the state.
The central probe agency also wants to send Mahato’s swab samples to a central government laboratory for Covid-19 test. His swab samples were tested in a state-run laboratory which declared him Covid-19 positive on Sunday, a day before the case was to be heard in a special court on Monday.
Mahato, the former poster boy of the Maoist-backed tribal movement that grabbed national headlines between 2008 and 2011, was recently inducted into the ruling TMC party after serving a jail term of eleven years.
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While the NIA had earlier questioned him in connection with an eleven-year-old case of hijacking of the Bhubaneswar-Delhi Rajdhani Express, the agency had also sought his custody along with four others in connection with the murder case.
None of the five accused appeared before the special court saying they were under home isolation after Mahato tested positive for Covid-19.
“The NIA has sought that Mahato and four others be put under house arrest. All five have been asked to appear before the court on the next hearing. The next hearing is on October 12,” said Kaushik Sinha, Mahato’s advocate.
