NIA Arrests Absconding Trinamool Associate Accused of Murdering BJP Leader

KOLKATA:
The NIA arrested long-absconding local Trinamool Congress leader Nabakumar Mondal, who is one of the key accused in the murder of BJP leader Bijoy Krishna Bhunia at Moyna in East Midnapore district in West Bengal, last May.

Sources aware of the development said that the accused was arrested from a place at Goramahal village in East Midnapore district. He will be first taken for a medical checkup on Wednesday, following which, they will be presented at a special court in Kolkata.

In April this year, Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Jay Sengupta ordered an NIA probe in the murder of Bhunia.

Bhunia was murdered at Moyna in May last year. Initially, Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha ordered a sub-divisional police officer (SDPO)-level probe in the matter.

However, later there were allegations against the state police of a flawed investigation into the matter. The first complaint was that the event of recovery of bombs from the place of the murder was not mentioned in the charge sheet. The accusations against the state police were also that their investigating officials had not included the names of a number of accused in the chargesheet.

Bhunia was the booth president of BJP at Moyna. He was picked up by goons allegedly close to the former Trinamool Congress legislator from Moyna Sangram Kumar Dolui and then hacked.

The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) also took suo motu cognizance in the matter. The then NCSC Chairman Arun Halder, at that point oftime, visited Moyna and claimed that the murder of Bhunia is a proof of how the state government had failed to ensure the security of the Scheduled Castes who constitute 22 per cent of the total voters in the state.