Malda violence: BJP team stopped from entering Kaliachak, 10 held

“We were told that there were orders not to allow me to visit the place,” said Bhattacharya. He later met the district magistrate and submitted his representation.

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“We have mentioned that Kaliachak area is beyond Nabanna’s control and rule of law is missing there. We have demanded that the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee should visit the place herself to take stock of the situation. We have also gathered information from various sources here and prepared a report that we will send to our central leadership, including Home Minister Rajnath Singh. We will also demand an NIA probe into the matter,” he said.

Talking about the arrests made by the police he said that the main culprit was still at large. “We have specific information that the person behind the carnage was a TMC worker who had been involved in all sorts of illegal activities, but has gone scot-free,” Bhattacharya alleged.

Meanwhile, police officials revealed that all ten accused arrested in connection with violence at the Kaliachak police station were unemployed youths.

“These people were there and that has been confirmed from the CCTV footage. There will be more arrests. We are being careful because it is a sensitive issue and the attack had been on the pretext of a religious rally. Therefore, we have to be very sure before making any arrest,” said a police official.

According to sources, apart from one arrested accused — Md Rashidul Haque — no one had any political links. Rashidul is the nephew of Abdur Rauf, the husband of Shefali Khatoon — a former CPM sabhadipati of Kaliachak.

While top officials, including Jayanta Kumar Pal, SS, IB (Siliguri) and N Ramesh Babu, ADG, visited the Kaliachak police station, officials said that the transfer process for many of sub-inspectors and assistant sub-inspectors was underway as they are feeling insecure about continuing.