Bengal
Surinder Koli, the prime accused in the infamous 2006 Nithari serial killings who was acquitted by the Supreme Court in 2025, was found dead in Haridwar on September 18. The incident followed a national seminar in Visakhapatnam where senior jurists and media professionals scrutinized investigative lapses by the CBI and questioned the lack of media follow-up for the victims’ families.
In a startling turn of events, Surinder Koli, the prime accused in the 2006 Nithari serial killings who was acquitted by the Supreme Court in 2025, was found dead inside his Haridwar tea stall on September 18. The incident closely follows a national seminar in Visakhapatnam where senior jurists and experts scrutinized the press and the CBI over systemic investigative failures that denied justice to victim families.
The Election Commission of India has frozen the Trinamool Congress name and ‘Flowers & Grass’ symbol for the October 6 bypolls, assigning separate interim designations to factions led by Mamata Banerjee and Arup Roy. Amid an urgent Supreme Court challenge by the party supremo, an emerging Congress-Mamata alignment has prompted the resignation of Trinamool’s Nandigram nominee.
In a significant development in the RG Kar Medical College rape and murder case, the Calcutta High Court has permitted the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to re-interrogate the sole convict, Sanjay Roy. The decision was delivered by a division bench, which observed that the accused “may know more” about the crime and that further questioning could help uncover additional facts.
The Calcutta High Court granted bail to Saradha Group chairman Sudipta Sen, citing his 13-year detention without trial as punitive and a violation of his right to a speedy trial.
In an unprecedented escalation of tensions between the Election Commission of India (EC) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC), a high-level meeting ended in chaos and acrimony on Monday. Sources within the poll body suggest that the panel effectively told a protesting delegation of TMC MPs to “get lost” after the session devolved into a heated shouting match over the neutrality of central agencies during the election cycle.
Ahead of the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has undertaken a major revision of the electoral rolls, removing more than 91 lakh names across the state. The move is part of an effort to ensure a clean and accurate voter database before polling begins.
Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India and senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will launch the party’s election campaign in West Bengal today from Cooch Behar.
Tension gripped parts of Malda district after a protest over alleged deletion of names from the voter list turned violent in the Kaliachak area, leading to a major law-and-order crisis and triggering a political as well as media controversy.According to official sources, the unrest began when a group of protesters gathered near a Block Development Office (BDO) demanding restoration of their names in the electoral rolls ahead of the ongoing election atmosphere.
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