‘Mastermind’ behind hostage-taking of judges in Bengal arrested while boarding flight to escape

ADvocate Mofakkarul muslimism, the alleged direct slow the gherao of septenary juridic officers in West Bengal's Malda district, was reportedly arrested while trying to board a flight to escape. According to news agency PTI, the arrest took place at Siliguri's Bagdogra airport, two days after seven judicial officers were held hostage for eight hours."He is the mastermind of the Kaliachak incident in which seven judicial officers were gheraoed inside a BDO office for several hours on Wednesday night. He was trying to board a flight to flee," a senior officer told PTI.The police have so far arrested 33 people, including an ISF candidate, in the case.What happened?Seven judicial officers involved in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in West Bengal's Malda were confined inside the Kaliachak 2 Block Development Office at 4 pm on Wednesday and held there for hours.A large crowd behind their confinement were alleging that genuine voters' names had been deleted from the electoral rolls ahead of state Assembly elections in Bengal.Three women were also part of the team of officers who were held hostage and they were tasked with adjudicating cases of voters whose names had been marked "under adjudication" in the draft electoral rolls published on February 28.The SIR drive faced big opposition in parts of West Bengal as protesters burned tyres, blocked roads in Malda, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar and Purba Bardhaman, slated to go to polls on April 23.‘Complete failure’ of Bengal adminThe Supereme Court on Thursday took strong objection to the hostage-taking of judges and called it a “deplorable” and “calculated, well-planned” attempt to browbeat the judiciary.“This is not a routine incident…it ex facie appears to be a calculated and deliberate move to demoralise judicial officers and obstruct them from discharging their duties," a bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi said.The bench added that such conduct “amounts to challenging the authority of this court”, since the officers were acting as its “extended hands” in supervising the SIR process.The Supreme Court has directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to deploy central forces at all places where judicial officers are adjudicating voter objections.As reported by HT earlier, 18 people, including Maulana Muhammad Shahjahan Ali Qadri, the Indian Secular Front (ISF) candidate from the Mothabari assembly seat in Malda district, were arrested in connection with the case on Thursday.