The National Investigation Agency arrested Trinamul state committee member Chhatradhar Mahato, former poster boy of a Maoist-backed tribal movement in Jungle Mahal, from his Lalgarh home in an old terror case early on Sunday, hours after the region had voted on Saturday.
Trinamul Congress vice-president Saugata Roy alleged a political conspiracy to target a man who had played a key role in the party’s campaign for the first phase of the Bengal elections. “As soon as Phase I ended, he was picked up in a political conspiracy. The NIA is a central agency and we suspect the BJP-led government ordered the arrest,” Roy said.
Chhatradhar, formerly a leader of the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA) — a tribal body accused of being a Maoist front in Jungle Mahal — has been arrested in connection with a train hijack by villagers in late 2009.
His wife Niyati said a group of “at least 40-50 people” raided the house early in the morning. Chhatradhar was later produced at Bankshall court in Calcutta and remanded in NIA custody till March 30.
Chhatradhar is also accused of the June 2009 murder of CPM leader Prabir Mahato in Jhargram and spent over 10 years in jail as an undertrial before getting bail in February last year. Both cases are with the NIA, which has slapped the anti-terror law UAPA against him in both.
On Thursday, Calcutta High Court had directed Chhatradhar to appear before the NIA in Calcutta thrice a week in connection with the cases against him. The NIA said he was arrested for disobeying the court directive.
But a Trinamul leader from Jungle Mahal said: “Chhatradhar had travelled to Calcutta on Friday too, but they arrested him not then but on Sunday morning from his home, after the vote.”
Trinamul insiders believe the NIA did not arrest Chhatradhar before the polling lest it hand Trinamul a sympathy plank. They said Chhatradhar looked after a dozen seats in Jungle Mahal and held hundreds of meetings in crucial pockets.
Niyati said NIA officers had snatched the couple’s phones after barging into their home early in the morning.
“He was pushed and brought down from the terrace. When he asked what the matter was, he was told he had to come out. They said they had come from the police station,” Niyati told reporters.
Chhatradhar’s lawyers alleged the NIA had not told the family the reason for the arrest after storming the house with around 35 police personnel.
Chhatradhar had come into the limelight as an articulate PCPA spokesperson over a decade ago, enjoying local support for his criticism of the then ruling Left Front over the lack of development in parts of Jungle Mahal. Thousands would gather to listen to him.
After several civil society members met him in Lalgarh, Mamata Banerjee decided to share a dais with him in February 2009.
But then came Prabir’s murder in June, and Chhatradhar was arrested by the state police before the case was handed over to the NIA.
Four months after the murder, a group of villagers blocked tracks and stopped a Bhubaneswar-bound Rajdhani Express at Banshtala station in Jhargram. The armed hijackers allegedly abducted the driver and his assistant and asked the passengers to vacate the train.
The NIA accuses Chhatradhar of orchestrating the incident to secure his release from jail.
After Chhatradhar walked out on bail last year, Trinamul inducted him into the party realising his reach in parts of Jhargram, Bankura and West Midnapore.
But two months after Chhatradhar’s release, the Union home ministry asked the NIA in April 2020 to probe the hijack case and the alleged role of the PCPA and Chhatradhar.
A case had already been registered under penal code sections 121 and 121A (waging war against the nation), 506 (criminal intimidation), 341 (wrongful restraint), 148 (rioting) as well as provisions of the Railways Act. The NIA added the UAPA saying the case involved the “hijacking of persons to threaten sovereignty of India”.
