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Congress candidate Milan Pradhan returns to Nandigram campaign trail on Wednesday after being released on interim bail by Calcutta High Court.
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On the same day, Congress campaigners Manik Fakir and Sukritiranjan Biswas are detained while preparing to campaign for Pradhan.
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Congress alleges political harassment, while police say Fakir was accused of hate speech; precise grounds for detention not immediately clear.
Nandigram in West Bengal saw fresh political friction on Wednesday, 30 September as Congress candidate Milan Pradhan returned to the campaign trail after 12 days in custody, while two Congress campaigners, writer and social activist Manik Fakir and Sukritiranjan Biswas, were detained by police in Chandipur.
Pradhan, who was released on interim bail by Calcutta High Court, immediately resumed campaigning for the 6 October Nandigram Assembly by-election. The court has allowed him to remain out of custody and campaign until 20 October, directing him to surrender before the concerned trial court on 21 October.
Pradhan was arrested in connection with six criminal cases dating back to the 2007 Nandigram anti-land acquisition movement, including a murder case.
Soon after his release, Pradhan alleged that the police had attempted to force him out of the electoral race. He claimed that plainclothes officers had abducted him from Chandipur on 18 September and taken him to a hotel in Mandarmani, where he was allegedly offered inducements to withdraw his candidature.
“I was busy campaigning. After a full day of campaigning, I was resting in Chandipur when plainclothes police suddenly arrived and forcibly took me away,” Pradhan said.
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