NIA staff in Bengal get interim relief against arrest

The Calcutta HC granted interim protection against arrest to NIA officers facing molestation and other charges in Bengal until the next hearing on April 29. The central anti-terrorism agency has sought HC’s intervention to quash an FIR filed against its men involved in the violence-marred arrests of two 2022 blast suspects in East Midnapore’s Bhupatinagar during a pre-dawn operation on April 6. However, HC refrained from halting Bengal police investigations into the FIR filed by the wife of an arrested accused Manabrata Jana against unnamed NIA and CRPF personnel, charging them with several penal sections, including criminal assault on a woman to disrobe her, outraging modesty, and trespass during the Bhupatinagar operation. NIA too had filed an FIR following the attack on its officers when they went to Bhupatinagar to arrest the two suspects involved in the bomb blast that had killed three people. The bench directed the state to submit its response to the two FIRs, one lodged by Bengal police and the other by NIA, within a week.