Bengal: TMC teachers' wing leader arrested in 2022 abetment to suicide case

KOLKATA: Police on Friday arrested Maidul Islam, a leader of the TMC teachers' outfit and a close aide of the party's national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, in connection with a 2022 case of abetment to suicide, a senior officer said.

Islam is the leader of the TMC teachers' organisation and a prominent face of the 2021 Shishu Shiksha Kendra (SSK) teachers' movement in West Bengal.

"Islam was nabbed from Hatuganj in the South 24 Parganas district late on Monday night when he was trying to flee. He was later formally put under arrest. He is scheduled to be produced before a court in Diamond Harbour later in the day," the police officer said

The case relates to the death of Debabrata Bhattacharya, then deputy chief of the Bolsiddhi Kalinagar Gram Panchayat in South 24 Parganas.

Bhattacharya died under unnatural circumstances in 2022. His wife had lodged an FIR alleging that Islam had created circumstances that forced Bhattacharya to take the extreme step

"A note was recovered from the deceased's residence during the investigation. The name of Maidul Islam was mentioned in the note. Based on the evidence collected and the progress of the investigation, he has been arrested for abetment to suicide," the officer said.

He said further investigation was underway and additional evidence was being examined.

While being taken away by the police, Islam said, "This is totally politically motivated. I have been arrested because I am with Abhishek Banerjee. Because I had gone to Sonarpur (where TMC leader Banerjee was attacked with stones and eggs) along with him."

"I have been saying that I have been framed, and I was not there when the matter happened in 2022," he told reporters.