NIA registers 12 FIRs to probe gherao of judicial officers deployed for SIR work in West Bengal's Malda

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday registered 12 cases to probe a gherao of judicial officers, who were deputed for work relating to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in West Bengal's Malda.

The move came following a directive from the Supreme Court.

In a late-night statement, the NIA said it has "re-registered 07 FIRs of PS Mothabari and 05 FIRs of PS Kalichak of District Malda, West Bengal for investigation", in compliance with a Supreme Court order dated April 6, "relating to the safety and security of judicial officers deputed for work relating to SIR of electoral rolls in Malda in West Bengal and related law-and-order incidents".

"The investigation teams of NIA already moved to Malda for thorough investigation of these cases," the statement said.

The apex court on Monday ordered the NIA to take over cases related to the gherao of seven judicial officers in Malda, observing that the bureaucracy's credibility was being lowered and politics was being injected into the West Bengal secretariat and government offices.

A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi exercised its plenary power under Article 142 of the Constitution to transfer 12 cases related to the April 1 incident.

It had taken suo-motu cognisance of a letter from the chief justice of the Calcutta High Court, detailing a harrowing night when judicial officers, including three women and a five-year-old child, were held captive by a mob for more than nine hours, without food or water.

The incident occurred during the SIR exercise in the Kaliachowk area of Malda district and according to the order, seven judicial officers were gheraoed by "anti-social elements".

The top court pulled up West Bengal Chief Secretary Dushyant Nariala and told him to apologise to the chief justice of the high court for not taking his calls on the day of the incident.

The bench directed the West Bengal Police to hand over all the 26 arrested accused to the NIA for interrogation along with the case papers, saying the local police could not be trusted in the matter.

It directed the NIA to interrogate the kingpin of the incident, saying it appeared to be a well-planned and motivated incident.

Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing in the court for the chief secretary and the director general of police (DGP) of West Bengal, submitted that the kingpins -- Mofakerrul Islam and Maulana Muhammad Shahjahan Ali Qadri -- were already arrested by the local police and were in custody.

In a scathing indictment, the top court said the incident "also exposes a complete failure of the state administration" and was a "brazen attempt not only to browbeat the judicial officers" but also amounted to challenging the Supreme Court's authority.

As many as 700 judicial officers from West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand are deployed in the ongoing SIR process to deal with more than 60 lakh objections of those who are excluded from the voter list in West Bengal.

The chief justice of the high court was forced to intervene personally, placing group calls to the home secretary and the DGP, the top court pointed out, adding that the home secretary and the DGP arrived at the CJ's residence and the judicial officers, who were held hostage, were relieved after midnight.

Even after the rescue, the judicial officers' vehicles were pelted with stones and attacked with sticks and bricks, the CJI noted.