West Bengal panchayat candidate held after stealing cop’s mobile, sending selfie to police officer’s wife

KOLKATA: An independent candidate for the upcoming West Bengal panchayat election was arrested after he allegedly stole a police officer’s cell phone and sent his selfie to the officer’s wife on the WhatsApp.

Accused Rabin Mondal, who filed nomination as an independent candidate from Danga Gram Panchayat in Uttar Dinajpur district, had allegedly stolen Balurghat police station sub-inspector Subrata
Mahanta’s cell phone from his patrolling van while he was on duty near Balurghat Airport on Wednesday.

While Mahanta filed an FIR at his police station the same day, on returning home he saw a man sending his selfie to his wife’s number on WhatsApp with a ‘Hi’ and ‘Hello’. Pretending to be the woman, SI Mahanta continued chatting with the accused and simultaneously informed Balurghat SHO Sanjay Ghosh about the incident. The mobile phone tower location was tracked and the accused was arrested on Thursday.

During interrogation, accused Mondal stated that he had thrown away Mahanta’s SIM card after the theft but mistook the installed WhatsApp as his own and thought of chatting with the woman whom he found attractive.

The accused was produced in the Balurghat court and was sent to police remand. Locals stated that the accused was associated with a political party for a long time but broke away after he was denied a ticket for the panchayat elections.