Cooch Behar (WB): The Tufanganj Court in West Bengal's Cooch Behar issued an arrest warrant against John Barla, Union Minister of State for Minorities and Alipurduar Lok Sabha constituency MP. On April 4, 2019, during the Lok Sabha elections in the Alipurduar constituency, Barla, then BJP candidate, was accused of taking out a bike rally on the BDO office premises despite the election rules being in force.
Government pleader Sanjay Barman said that since there was no permission to take out the procession at that time, a complaint was lodged with the Election Commission of India (ECI) at Bakshirhat Police Station. The court sent summons to Barla on Tuesday but since then, neither his lawyer nor Barla were present in the court. It may be noted that in that case, four people, including John Barla, were named, but the other three were released. This incident has caused a stir in political circles, but the BJP leadership did not want to comment on the matter yet.
