The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday, April 12, 2026, detained West Bengal Assembly candidate Sayem Chowdhury and arrested Indian Secular Front (ISF) member Golam Rabbani in Malda for their alleged involvement in the violent gherao of judicial officials earlier this month. The central agency acted following a Supreme Court directive to investigate the April 1 incident in the Motabhari area, where a mob protesting the deletion of names from the electoral roll held seven judicial officers hostage for over eight hours. The suspects were apprehended after video analysis placed them at the scene of the agitation, which the apex court described as a “complete failure” of the state’s law and order machinery.
The investigation stems from a high-tension protest during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. On April 1, hundreds of villagers, primarily women, converged on the Kaliachak-II block office to protest the exclusion of several thousand names from the voter list. The situation escalated when the crowd surrounded seven judicial officers—including three women and a child—blocking all exits and preventing their departure until past midnight.
Following a scathing critique by the Supreme Court, which invoked Article 142 to hand the case over to the NIA, the federal agency re-registered 12 FIRs previously handled by the West Bengal Police. According to NIA officials, Sayem Chowdhury, the Congress candidate for the Mothabari seat, was detained while campaigning in the Alinagar panchayat area. Golam Rabbani, an ISF gram panchayat member, was officially arrested after preliminary interrogations suggested he had addressed the agitators during the siege.
The central agency’s probe focuses on whether the disruption was a pre-planned attempt to obstruct the judicial adjudication of the voter list. Footage analyzed by investigators reportedly shows local political leaders inciting the crowd, which later resorted to stone-pelting against security forces during the rescue operation.
While political reactions have been sharp, with the Trinamool Congress blaming opposition instigation and the Congress and ISFalleging political vendetta, the NIA has continued its crackdown. Rabbani is expected to be produced before a special court in Kolkata, as the agency seeks to uncover the broader conspiracy behind the security breach that has shadowed the lead-up to the state’s assembly elections.
