Seven judicial officers — including three women and a five-year-old child — were trapped in a government office for nine hours without food or water while checking voter rolls. The alleged mastermind, an AIMIM leader and lawyer, was arrested trying to board a flight out of state. Democracy is thriving.
In Kaliachak, Malda district, a mob surrounded a BDO office on April 1 and held seven judicial officers hostage for over nine hours. The officers were conducting a Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls — essentially checking whether 63 lakh deleted voters should stay deleted — when a large crowd decided the democratic process would benefit from some light hostage-taking. The officers, including three women and a five-year-old child of one of them, were denied even drinking water. They were rescued after midnight. The alleged mastermind, Mofakkarul Islam — an AIMIM member and practising lawyer who presumably skipped the chapter on habeas corpus — was arrested at Bagdogra airport trying to flee the state. The NIA has now registered a preliminary enquiry, and the Supreme Court has slammed West Bengal for what it called a "complete failure of civil and police administration." Mamata Banerjee responded by calling the entire episode a BJP-ECI conspiracy, because when judges are held hostage, the real question is always who benefits politically.