The West Bengal Police on Friday arrested the alleged mastermind behind the gherao of seven judicial officers in Malda district from Siliguri’s Bagdogra airport.The accused, identified as Mofakkarul Islam, was arrested at the Bagdogra airport on Friday morning while he was apparently trying to flee.An NIA probe has been ordered by the Election Commission into the incident as per the directions of the Supreme Court.The NIA team visited the Mothabari and Kaliachak police stations in Malda on Thursday to probe into the illegal confinement of seven judicial officers by protesting locals over the deletion of names during the special intensive revision of electoral rolls, official sources said.The 24-member team of the federal anti-terror probe agency, led by a DIG-ranked official, spoke to the police and other personnel at Mothabari and collected samples from the spot, where a mob had gathered and allegedly hurled bricks at vehicles when security forces tried to lift the blockade.Following the arrest of Mofakkarul Islam, a new political flashpoint emerged between the ruling TMC and the BJP.The TMC claimed that Islam and two others — with one being the husband of a Bihar BJP leader — are BJP agents, while the BJP alleged that Islam was close to the ruling party and shared series of pictures on social media, showing him on posters and on stage with TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.Meanwhile, the Election Commission on Friday said that prior to the announcement of polls, the state government had deployed 2,185 police personnel for providing security to 832 persons belonging to the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) directly and 144 others, including party supporters.The poll panel’s statement has come amid reports of close to 500 administrative and police officers, including the state’s DGP and Chief Secretary, having been transferred in West Bengal by Election Commission since the announcement of the Assembly elections schedule on March 15.Taking serious note of the lapse, the EC has directed the state DGP to conduct a strict review of the situation in the next few days “in a fair and equitable manner”.EC sources said that just before the commencement of the SIR exercise on October 27, 2025, till the announcement of the Assembly poll schedule on March 15, 2026, the state government had transferred 1,370 officers, including 97 IAS officers, 146 IPS officers, 1,080 state civil service officers and 47 police service officers.“This chaos created by the West Bengal Government was corrected by the EC with the minimal number of transfers,” an EC official said.On Friday, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar along with Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi also directed the state Chief Secretary, the DGP and Kolkata police commissioner as well as divisional commissioners, ADGPs, IGs, DMs, CPs, SSPs and SPs to achieve free, fair, transparent and impartial elections by ensuring that these elections were violence and intimidation free, and there were no cases of booth/source jamming.Simultaneously, the entire state seems to have been converted into a cantonment as 500 companies of paramilitary forces have been directed by the EC to remain deployed in West Bengal for post-poll law and order duties even after the completion of counting, till further orders.Besides, the EC has directed that 200 companies of paramilitary forces shall be retained in the state for security arrangements of EVMs, strongrooms and counting centres and will remain deployed till the completion of counting in West Bengal.