Kolkata, Apr 8 (IANS): At least eight Trinamool Congress leaders including the two arrested were under the National Investigation Agency (NIA) scanner for quite some time in connection with the blast at Bhupatinagar in East Midnapore district of West Bengal in December 2022 in which three persons were killed.

Of the eight, NIA had already arrested two leaders Balai Charan Maity, a Trinamool Congress area president and Monobrata Jana, ruling party booth president.

Three others Manab Kumar Parua, the public works executive officer with East Midnapore district and two of his associates Subir Maity and Nobo Kumar Panda have also been issued notices by NIA and have been asked to be present at the central agency office on Monday.

Sources said that the three other local Trinamool Congress leaders are Uttam Maity, Milan Burman and Shiboprasad Gayen and all of them are known to be active grassroots-level ruling party leaders in the area.

Sources added that since NIA took over the investigation in June 2023 following an order of the Calcutta High Court, they have issued summons of interrogation to each of these eight local ruling party leaders while all have ignored these summons.

On Saturday, NIA conducted the raid and search operations at Naruabila village in the Bhupatinagar area and arrested Balai Charan Maity and Monobrata Jana.

On their way back while arresting them, the NIA faced an attack by a group of villagers, in which one of their officers received minor injuries.

“They are deliberately targeting our main booth agents in the area. If our booth agents are arrested, we will field their family members as booth agents,” West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said.