All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Mofakkerul Islam was arrested at the Bagdogra airport on Friday after being named the main conspirator behind the April 1 violence at Mothabari in West Bengal's Malda during protests against voter deletions.
Islam, a resident of Itahar and registered as a voter in the Raiganj assembly constituency, was allegedly making incendiary speeches, which were uploaded on social media, and was trying to fly to Bengaluru when he was detained by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
Additional director general of police K Jayaraman said 35 people have so far been arrested in the case since Wednesday and 19 cases have been registered throughout Malda. Islam is named in three such cases.
The Election Commission of India directed the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to take over the investigation into the violence from the police, and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said Islam's arrest exposed the conspiracy behind the Malda violence.
The Lok Sabha member Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM has so far named 12 candidates for the April 23-29 polls in West Bengal in alliance with Humayun Kabir's Janata Unnayan Party (JUP), while the ruling Trinamool Congress suspended Kabir after he laid the foundation stone of a mosque modelled on Ayodhya's Babri Masjid in Murshidabad in December.
