Union Minister of State for Home Nishith Pramanik appeared before the Alipurduar court on Tuesday in connection with a 2009 theft case. Pramanik is an accused in this case. He surrendered in court two days before the Calcutta High Court had given him the deadline to appear in person. It is a matter of relief for Pramanik that in future he has been exempted from personally appearing in court hearings in this case. Alipurduar Court’s Judicial Magistrate Moumita Malik pronounced the verdict on Tuesday.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nishith Pramanik is the MP from Coochbehar. An Alipurduar court had issued an arrest warrant against him on November 16, 2022, in connection with the theft of two stores in 2009. However, the Calcutta High Court on November 23 stayed the warrant against the minister and directed him to appear before a magistrate in the Alipurduar court between January 7 and January 12, 2023.
Pramanik said – wrongly implicated
Pramanik’s lawyers claimed that a case of theft was registered against unknown persons at Alipurduar police station, but they were falsely implicated by the police. During Tuesday’s hearing, the lawyers told the court that his name was added for political purposes as he works for the local ethnic communities.
Pramanik left TMC and joined BJP
At the same time, Pramanik told reporters outside the court building that his name was not mentioned in the original police complaint. It was added later. It is known that Pramanik used to be the district leader of Trinamool Congress (TMC). However, he later left Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s party. After switching sides, he contested from Cooch Behar in 2019 on a BJP ticket and won.