Arrest warrant against Union minister: TMC seeks time with President

NEW DELHI: At a time when ministers and MPs from Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress party have been facing the heat from central investigating agencies, the party’s parliamentary leaders have sought time with President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday, with regard to an arrest warrant that has been issued against Union minister from the state Nisith Pramanik, by a West Bengal court in a theft case that dates back to 2009.

TMC parliamentary party leaders Sudip Bandyopadhyay (Lok Sabha) and Derek O'Brien (Rajya Sabha) have sought an appointment with the President, according to party sources. A seven-member delegation of party MPs will travel to Delhi whenever the President grants time to take up the Pramanik’s case, as the minister of state for home affairs, has been booked in a case of theft and extortion in a jewellery store in 2009, by a court in Alipurduar, in north Bengal.

“On November 11, the Alipurduar judicial third court issued an arrest warrant against Pramanik under IPC sections 457 (house trespass), 383 (extortion), 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) among others. The incident took place in 2009 in Alipurduar,” said public prosecutor P Narayan Majumdar. According to the prosecutor, the matter was transferred from a special MP/MLA court in Barasat in North 24 Parganas district to the Alipurduar court on the directions of the Calcutta High Court.

“On November 11, the other accused in the case had moved bail petitions. But there was no such move on the part of Nisith Pramanik,” Majumdar added.

The arrest warrant was issued against the BJP MP from Cooch Behar, as no lawyer represented him in the court and the government lawyer then demanded that an arrest warrant be issued against him, according to sources.

Last year, Pramanik was embroiled in a controversy when Congress leader Ripun Bora had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that the BJP MP is a Bangladeshi citizen and his nationality should be investigated. BJP however, had dismissed the allegation.