Malda Gherao Case: Alleged Mastermind Mofakkarul Islam arrested at Bagdogra airport

The West Bengal Police on Friday arrested two persons, including the alleged mastermind of the gherao of seven judicial officers in Malda district, from Siliguri's Bagdogra airport, a senior officer said.

He claimed that an advocate, Mofakkarul Islam, the purported mastermind, was detained while attempting to board a plane.

"He is the mastermind of the Kaliachak incident in which seven judicial officers were gheraoed inside a block office for several hours on Wednesday night. He was trying to board a flight to flee," the officer said, according to PTI.

ADG (North Bengal) K Jayaraman told reporters that Mofakkarul Islam currently resides in Kolkata but is originally from Itahar in the Uttar Dinajpur district.

According to an NDTV report, Mofakerrul Islam, a lawyer from North Dinajpur, had contested the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections from the Itahar constituency on an AIMIM ticket.

AIMIM’s West Bengal chief Imran Solanki told NDTV that Islam, who practices at the Calcutta High Court, has around three million followers on social media and was fielded by the party from his hometown due to his popularity and public outreach.

Solanki said Islam had been vocal on issues such as the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), which helped him gain prominence among supporters.

Islam was later appointed AIMIM’s North Zone in charge, though he has reportedly remained inactive in recent months and was not assigned any role after the party’s new Bengal leadership took charge in 2025.

Another person arrested in the case is Akramul Bagani, who has been running a YouTube channel called Insaf Bangla since 2014.

The channel has over 4,000 videos and around 6.7 lakh subscribers, and Bagani has been accused of producing content critical of the BJP and Hindu groups on the platform.

Investigators say Bagani had become acquainted with Mofakerrul Islam in recent years, and the two were seen travelling together to several locations. A photograph of them together was recently traced to Kerala, while reports also suggest that they visited districts such as Malda and Murshidabad multiple times.

With Kerala links emerging, police are also examining possible connections with the banned Popular Front of India (PFI), which earlier had a strong presence in parts of Malda and Murshidabad.

Police claim that the seven judicial officers were gheraoed inside the Kaliachak-2 block office under the Mothabari assembly constituency after three charges were filed against Islam at the Kaliachak police station for allegedly "instigating" villagers through remarks on Wednesday.

"We started tracking Mofakkarul Islam after the incident, and with the help of West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and Siliguri Police, nabbed him and his associate from Bagdogra airport. Three cases were lodged against him for instigating locals in three different places," he said, adding that a total of 19 cases have been lodged in connection with the Kaliachak incident.

The police officer stated that the West Bengal Police would carry out their inquiry to ascertain whether the incident was "pre-planned" and whether additional individuals were involved, even though the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has taken over the case.

He continued, "With the most recent arrest, the police have detained 35 people for their alleged involvement in the incident, including an ISF candidate."