Police search TMC leader’s home before Nandigram by-election

West Bengal police searched the home of Trinamool Congress leader Sheikh Shahabuddin in Nandigram on Sunday in connection with cases registered between 2007 and 2011, a senior officer said. A team from Nandigram Police Station carried out the operation, but Shahabuddin was not at the residence when officers arrived, according to the officer. Warrants had been issued in his name in relation to several cases dating from 2007, 2009 and 2011.

Members of Shahabuddin’s family declined to comment on the search. The source material did not state whether police made any arrests or recovered items during the operation. The action took place ahead of the October 6 by-election for the Nandigram Assembly seat.

The seat was vacated by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari after he chose to retain Bhabanipur. The contest has also been affected by developments involving other candidates. Sanchita Pradhan Dey, the nominee of the Mamata Banerjee faction of the Trinamool Congress, withdrew from the race.

Banerjee’s faction subsequently extended support to the Congress candidate, Milan Pradhan. Pradhan was arrested on the basis of four pending arrest warrants that were 19 years old, according to the source material. The warrants relate to serious offences allegedly committed during the 2007 agitation against land acquisition in the region.

The police search and Pradhan’s arrest have occurred in the same pre-election period, but the source material does not report any statement from Shahabuddin, the Trinamool Congress or other parties directly linking the search to the campaign. It also gives no further details of the cases against Shahabuddin.