Category: WEST BENGAL

• KOLKATA
• DARJEELING
• Midnapore
• Jalpaiguri
• Naihati
• Belur Math
• Belur
• Bankura

The Election Commission of India (ECI) is closely following the developments in trouble-hit Sandeshkhali in West Bengal in view of the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.

According to sources in the know of things, Majumdar, who was earlier arrested, was later released on bail. He was brought to the ferry-jetty at Dhamakhali, one of the waterway entry points to Sandeshkhali.

Fresh tension erupted in Sandeshkhali in West Bengal on Thursday afternoon as angry villagers burnt down a property owned by Sheikh Sirajuddin, the younger brother of the absconding Trinamool Congress leader Sheikh Shahjahan.

The protesting women have also said that peace will not be restored in Sandeshkhali unless President’s Rule is imposed. “Sincerely we feel that we will be safe only if the President’s rule is imposed,” many of the local women were heard saying in the video.

Political observers feel that the nature of the ongoing crisis at Sandeshkhali is so varied that it has opened the avenues for multiple central commissions to intervene in the matter.

NCST has also communicated to the state secretariat that a field-inspection team of the commission will visit Sandeshkhali on Thursday.

She is the second chief of a national commission who has advocated for President’s Rule in wake of the ongoing Sandeshkhali crisis.

The WBCPCR woke up a week after the incident only after the District Magistrate got a notice from the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), on Friday about the horrific incident in violence-hit Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district.

The committee accompanied by BJP legislator Agnimitra Paul started for Sandeshkhali on Friday morning. But as soon as they reached Rampur area, which is at a distance from Sandeshkhali, they were stopped by a huge police contingent deployed there.

"Dev recently said that he will not surrender before the BJP under any circumstances. That is why he is being harassed with a fresh ED notice. He has become a victim of vendetta politics," Ghosh said.

The actress-politician reached the Assembly premises on Thursday afternoon and complained to the Chief Minister against the behaviour meted out to her by the local leadership of her own party in her constituency.

An AJT Hawk aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) met with an accident soon after take-off from the Air Force Station at Kalaikunda in West Bengal on Tuesday afternoon, forcing both pilots to bail out.

On Saturday, after staging a walk out from the Assembly, the BJP legislators led by Adhikari went straight to the Raj Bhavan and had a meeting with the Governor.

The tension at Sandeshkhali in West Bengal escalated on Friday after women agitators seeking absconding Trinamool Congress leader Sheikh Shahjahan’s arrest, burnt down a poultry farm owned by his close confidant and Trinamool Congress leader Shibu Hazra.

Political observers say that never before have they seen the Chief Minister repeatedly vouching for her “personal honesty” the way she is doing now, while addressing political and administrative meetings.

The Governor’s comment is perceived to be significant considering that Shahjahan’s counsel on Tuesday approached a special PMLA court in Kolkata seeking anticipatory bail for his client.

The judge asked the ED counsel the details of the charges against Shahjahan. When the ED counsel sought some time for submitting the details on this count, the judge adjourned the hearing in the matter till February 3.

However, the preparation on Wednesday for conducting the raid and search operations were much more elaborate than what it was on January 5 when the attack took place.

Train services were affected in parts of north Bengal on Friday after protesters demanding for a separate Kamtapur state blocked rail tracks.

The West Bengal Police nabbed two men in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, the first arrests made after a week when an ED team was attacked in Sandeshkhali, said officials on Friday.

In a significant achievement, the West Bengal Police have arrested the most-wanted CPI(Maoist) central committee member Sabyasachi Goswami a.k.a. Kishore Da, thus foiling fresh attempts to resurrect Left wing extremism in certain pockets of the state.

According to informed sources, the crucial evidence was discovered for the first while ED officials had raided the residence of arrested middleman Ayan Sil last year in connection with the multi-crore cash-for-school-job case.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday was conducting marathon and simultaneous raid and search operations at three places in West Bengal, including the residences of a heavyweight minister and a ruling Trinamool MLA.

She told media persons that the attacks on the Central agency sleuths are actually "harming" the image of Trinamool Congress and also giving an opportunity to the opposition parties and the media to raise questions about the integrity of the party leaders.

The Enforcement Directorate has requested the Border Security Force (BSF) to heighten its surveillance as the probe agency believes that heavyweight Trinamool Congress leader Sajahan Sheikh,