West Bengal Police Defend Arrest of Nandigram Congress Candidate as Lawful

West Bengal Police on Saturday defended the arrest of the Congress candidate from Nandigram, Milan Pradhan, describing it as a lawful step taken in compliance with the Election Commission's standing instructions on pending non-bailable warrants.

In a statement, the police said Mr. Pradhan was arrested in connection with four cases dating back to 2007, during the Nandigram protests. The charges in these cases include murder, attempt to murder, abduction with intent to murder, causing disappearance of evidence, house trespass, and rioting with arms and deadly weapons.

According to the police, executing long-pending non-bailable warrants is a standing instruction of the Election Commission of India for all elections and bye-elections, and the arrest was carried out as part of an ongoing special drive. The statement added that Mr. Pradhan had been absconding and evading the due process of law for nearly 19 years.

Mr. Pradhan was arrested on Friday, within an hour of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee extending her support to his candidature. The development followed the withdrawal of Sanchita Pradhan (De), the candidate earlier fielded by the ruling party, who announced her decision after meeting the Chief Minister late on Thursday night.

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi criticised the arrest, calling it political revenge and a murder of democracy. In a social media post, he said the BJP has no faith in fair elections and seeks to cling to power through vote theft, stealing governments and stealing parties, adding that it wants to end the electoral fight altogether.

The West Bengal Congress was scheduled to hold a protest rally in Kolkata on Saturday evening against the arrest of its candidate.

Senior Congress leader Suman Roy Choudhuri said old cases from the Nandigram protests remained open, alleging that once the new government came to power it closed cases registered in its own name while keeping those involving opposition parties alive to target them.

State Congress president Subhankar Sarkar said the police could have summoned Mr. Pradhan, noting that he had declared everything in his nomination papers and made no attempt to conceal anything. He claimed that a false case was created in 2007 and that such cases during the Nandigram protests were filed against many people across party lines.