West Bengal: Third teacher held in Raiganj SDO assault case - The Times of India

MALDA: A teacher of Bharatpur High School was arrested on Saturday night for his alleged involvement in the assault of Raiganj SDO on May 16. A local court remanded the teacher — Sanjit Das — in police custody for a day.Two other teachers — Manoj Bhoumik and Pradip Sinha — who were also arrested in the same case on May 19, are still behind bars. They were slapped with non-bailable penal sections pertaining to murder, assault and unlawful assembly and under provisions of the SC/ST Act and National Highway Act.North Dinajpur police superintendent Shyam Singh said, “We checked the CCTV camera footage and other recordings to find some teachers assaulting the SDO. They are being identified and the search is on.” Police sources said that nearly 82 teachers have already been identified. Fearing arrests many have fled homes. One such teacher while talking to TOI said, “I don’t know whether my name is on the list, though I was not on the spot at the time of incident.”The raids prompted late poll officer and teacher Rajkumar Ray’s widow — Arpita — to appeal to the district magistrate and state tourism minister Gautam Deb for release of the arrested teachers. To protest the alleged “police highhandedness” a convention was held on Sunday. It was attended by senior CPM leader Bikash Bhattacharya.Rajkumar’s mutilated body was found a day after the May 14 panchayat polls, triggering a teachers’ unrest. Later, Raigunj SDO TN Sherpa tried to pacify the teachers who refused to work on the counting day. Sherpa allegedly hinted that Ray may have committed suicide. This infuriated the agitating teachers who assaulted him. They also blocked NH-34 demanding their security during counting. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee later ordered a CID probe in Ray’s death and gave Rs 5 lakh compensation to Arpita. The police registered two separate cases against the teachers — for assaulting the SDO and blocking the national highway.