On August 5 last year, the Election Commission had asked then Bengal chief secretary Manoj Pant to suspend the four officials and lodge FIRs against them and the data operator. On Friday, the commission asked Bengal chief electoral officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal to instruct the district election officers — the district magistrates of South 24-Parganas and East Midnapore — to have FIRs registered against the five. “But the problem is that the district magistrates are in deputation with the poll commission these days since the SIR is under way,” a bureaucrat said. The commission had issued the August 2025 order to suspend and lodge FIRs against them only after receiving a detailed report containing the admissions by these officials. Multiple state government officials said the commission’s latest instruction had sent out a message to the state government officials involved in the SIR process, while telling Trinamool that the poll panel was not perturbed by its attacks.

Source: The Telegraph January 03, 2026 02:19 UTC