CCTV Shows How Judicial Officers' Cars In Bengal Were Chased By 34 Bikes

CCTV footage accessed by NDTV shows the moment when 34 motorcycles pursued the vehicles carrying seven judicial officers through the streets of Malda district in West Bengal late on Wednesday night.

The officers had been sent to the Kaliachak area under instructions from the Supreme Court and the Election Commission of India to hear complaints from voters whose names had been marked "under adjudication" during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. 

#BREAKING | Exclusive CCTV footage accessed by NDTV shows the scale of violence in Malda, with men on motorcycles seen chasing officials' cars

NDTV's @manogyaloiwal Reports pic.twitter.com/ZpF5QRIMRU

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A large crowd surrounded their vehicles and held them for around nine hours. When the officers finally managed to leave, the pursuing motorcycles followed them at high speed.

The footage, recorded at 11:48 pm, shows the 34 bikes chasing a convoy of 10 vehicles. Audio recorded inside one of the cars reveals a female officer, clearly alarmed, telling her family she was frightened and urging them to take whatever steps were necessary. 

She and her colleagues could be heard instructing the driver to accelerate, keep the headlights blinking and move as fast as possible.

The incident has become the central issue in the early days of the West Bengal assembly election campaign. On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi used his first public rally in the state since the election schedule was announced to place the Malda events at the heart of the BJP's attack on the ruling Trinamool Congress.

PM Modi said that the gherao of judicial officers demonstrated what he called the Trinamool's "sponsored maha jungleraj". He said the episode showed that even judges and constitutional processes were no longer safe under the Mamata Banerjee government. 

"What kind of government is this? What kind of system is this where even judges and the constitutional process are not safe?" he asked. "How can such people ensure the safety of Bengal's common people?"

The Prime Minister said the situation had become so serious that the Supreme Court itself had to intervene to secure the officers' release. He accused the Trinamool of trying to strangle constitutional institutions whenever the "noose of justice" tightened around the party.

The Bengal assembly elections will be held in two phases on April 23 and 29, with results on May 4.

The Trinamool Congress dismissed PM Modi's remarks as desperate election rhetoric. 

The police response on the night of the incident has also come under scrutiny. According to accounts of the events, officers took nearly ten hours to cover a distance of only 500 metres from the local police station to reach the scene. Action was eventually taken only after the Supreme Court intervened.

The seven judicial magistrates included three women.