The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday arrested Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Md Shakir Ali, in connection with the 2023 communal violence during Ram Navami celebrations in Hooghly district’s Rishra town.
Ali, the councillor from Ward 4 at Rishra municipality, is the husband of Aparupa Poddar, the TMC MP from Arambagh from 2014 to 2024.
An NIA team arrived at Rishra on Tuesday morning and started questioning Shakir Ali at his residence. He was formally placed under arrest at 3:30pm after hours of questioning.
“Some local people tried to block the road when the NIA team was leaving with Ali but we dispersed the crowd,” a district police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.
Poddar did not speak to the media as her husband was being taken away.
The case relates to violence outside a mosque on April 2, 2023, evening when a Ram Navami procession was passing by.
According to BJP leader Dilip Ghosh at the time, stones were thrown at the procession, leading to injuries to Biman Ghosh, who was the BJP legislator from Purshura constituency in Hooghly at the time. Ghosh took part in that Ram Navami procession in Rishra.
The state home department had to suspend mobile internet services in the Rishra and Mahesh areas of Hooghly for two days and restrict traffic movement on certain roads to restore normalcy.
The Risra incident was reported days after the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the West Bengal police started to probe violence around Ram Navami celebrations at Shibpur in Howrah district on March 30 and 31.
Muslims in Rishra alleged at that time that stones were thrown at them when they were preparing to break the Ramadan fast in the mosque.
Bengal BJP unit’s chief spokesperson Debjit Sarkar said, “Unlike the former government, the BJP government is determined to establish the rule of law.”
