The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday (June 4, 2026) conducted searches at the residence of former Trinamool Congress MLA Saokat Molla in Maukhali, South 24 Parganas district, in connection with a bomb blast in Bhangar ahead of the recent West Bengal Assembly election.

A senior police officer from the Bhangar subdivision confirmed the development, saying an NIA team, accompanied by Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel and local police, reached Mr. Molla’s residence at around 7 a.m.

Officials said the searches are still underway. Mr. Molla was reportedly not present at his residence when the team arrived. NIA officials briefly questioned his wife and two children and also visited a cafe run by his son, Imran.

The agency also carried out searches at several locations in Bamunia village, where the blast had occurred.

Mr. Molla represented the Canning Purba Assembly constituency and won elections in 2016 and 2021. He contested the recent Assembly election from Bhangar but lost to Indian Secular Front (ISF) leader Naushad Siddiqui.

Ahead of the Assembly polls, a blast in the area on March 19 killed one person and injured three others while crude bombs were allegedly being manufactured. Following the incident, police recovered at least 79 crude bombs and other explosive materials.

The explosives were reportedly stored by unidentified persons in an abandoned house near a burial ground in Majherhat (Poilepara) village.

An FIR was registered at Uttar Kashipur police station under the Bhangar division. The case was subsequently transferred to the NIA in April, following directions from the Union Home Ministry, after which the agency registered a fresh FIR.

The NIA had earlier arrested local TMC leader Ahidul Islam for his alleged role as a co-conspirator in the manufacture of the bombs.

Other arrests

In a separate development, the Regent Park police in Kolkata arrested Biswajit Mondal, a Trinamool Congress councillor from Ward No. 114 of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, in connection with an alleged incident of harassment and assault of a woman in 2024.

Another Trinamool leader Sahidul Mian was arrested from Mathabhanga in Cooch Behar district. He was found hiding under a cot at his residence when angry villagers had surrounded his residence. The allegations against the arrested involve taking cut money for giving benefit of government schemes.

Hundreds of local level Trinamool leaders and former and sitting MLAs have been arrested after the change of regime in West Bengal on allegations of corruption and extortion.