Falta’s Pushpa, on the run for 2 weeks, arrested near Nepal border

Kolkata/Siliguri: The Bengal Special Task Force (STF) and Darjeeling Police caught Trinamool neta Jahangir Khan, who was the party’s Falta candidate, from Panitanki Bazar on the India-Nepal border around 2.30 pm on Sunday. Khan, who earned the sobriquet, ‘Pushpa’, ahead of the elections, had been on the run for two weeks, with at multiple criminal charges and at least seven FIRs for murder, extortion and electoral malpractice, slapped against him.

Khan was initially holed up in a hotel in Phansidewa, and then, he moved to a house, located close to the international border, a senior STF officer said. Another officer said he planned to move to Nepal with his wife and son and even enrol his son in a school there. An intelligence unit officer claimed Khan had already sneaked into Nepal alone and had rented a house in Kathmandu, where he remained hidden for a couple of days. He travelled back to India through the Indo-Nepalese border at Panitanki on Sunday morning, when he was arrested, the officer said. “The accused went completely off the grid to evade electronic surveillance,” an officer told TOI. “Khan switched off his phones, changed his SIMs and deleted his WhatsApp account as he fled Falta. But he continued to maintain contact with a few trusted associates and family members through alternative channels. By tracking those numbers and mapping his travel patterns, our teams tracked him down.”

A statement issued by the Bengal STF said Khan, wanted in several cases, registered at the Falta Police Station under Diamond Harbour Police District, was arrested around 2.30 pm on Sunday from the Panitanki Bazar area under the Kharibari PS. Khan was taken to the Phansidewa PS, where elaborate security arrangements were put in place and a large contingent of state police and central forces was deployed. He was subsequently produced in a local court and was directed to be brought to Diamond Harbour Police District.

The EC ordered a fresh vote in Flata after complaints of violence and malpractice during the polling on April 29. The re-poll was slated for May 21. An arrest warrant was issued against Khan, who moved court and on May 18, a single-judge bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharya granted him temporary immunity from arrest to allow him to contest the Falta repoll. But 48 hours before the May 21 repoll, Khan withdrew from the contest. Citing a shift in alignment, Khan had said, “My dream was a Golden Falta. Our chief minister (Suvendu Adhikari) is providing a special package for the development of Falta. For that reason, I have decided to withdraw myself.”

A day after the Falta re-election, a vacation bench of the Calcutta High Court, presided over by Justice Partha Sarathi Sen, vacated the interim protection. Turning down Khan’s prayer for an extension of his bail, the court observed: “It would be highly unjust if undue protection is given to the writ petitioner only on account of the change of the political scene in Bengal. The petitioner has miserably failed to make out a case of interim protection; the prayer for extension of interim protection is rejected, and the interim protection is vacated.”

As the court vacated the protection, Khan fled.

When police teams initially raided Khan’s South 24 Parganas home on May 21, they found the house locked and him missing.

As news of Pushpa’s arrest flashed on TV screens on Monday morning, people in Falta burst into celebrations, apparently joyous at the retribution. The jubilation, however, soon turned into targeted fury as enraged locals marched to Khan’s party office, broke the locks, force open the shutters and went on the rampage inside. Even as central paramilitary forces looked on, protesters vandalised plastic tables, chairs, computers and TVs and hurled out stacks of documents onto the streets even as they chanted anti-Khan slogans. In the office, protesters reportedly discovered large stockpiles of liquor bottles and large quantities of govt relief materials, including tarpaulins and other aid supplies .

After finishing with the office, the protesters vented their anger at Khan’s under-construction house nearby, too.

Some individuals, their faces covered, allegedly removed some materials from the office premises during the unrest.