Union minister Nisith Pramanik has 14 criminal cases against him: affidavit

Union minister Nisith Pramanik, who has been renominated by the BJP in Cooch Behar for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, has 14 criminal cases pending against him, according to an affidavit filed by him along with his nomination papers.

Of the 14 cases pending against the Union minister of state for home, nine were registered between 2018 and 2020. The others were filed between 2009 and 2014, as per the affidavit.

Pramanik joined the BJP in 2019 after he was expelled from the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in 2018 over allegedly putting up several independents in that year's panchayat polls in the state against party-nominated contestants in Cooch Behar district.

Claiming that the criminal cases were politically motivated, a district functionary of the BJP said most of the FIRs against Pramanik were registered once he cut off ties with the ruling TMC in West Bengal and thereafter joined the BJP.

The cases registered against the Union minister range from attempt to murder and rioting to house trespass and unlawful assembly.

He stated in his affidavit that charges were not framed against him in any of the registered cases. While 12 of these cases were registered in various police stations in Cooch Behar district, two were filed in Alipurduar.

In his affidavit to the Election Commission before the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Pramanik had declared 11 pending criminal cases against him. The minister has stated in the affidavit for the 2024 polls that his annual income in 2023-24 was Rs 12.34 lakh, while it stood at Rs 10.72 lakh in 2022-23.

He further stated that he was an assistant teacher in a primary school, while his spouse was a housewife. Pramanik had in 2019 wrested the Cooch Behar constituency for the BJP from the TMC, which had won the seat in 2014 and also in a bypoll in 2016, necessitated by the demise of party MP Renuka Sinha.

Elections to the Cooch Behar Lok Sabha seat will be held on 19 April.