Kolkata: Amirul Sheikh Islam, a Trinamool Congress councillor from ward number 14 of Pujali Municipality under Diamond Harbour subdivision in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, was arrested under the Arms Act 1959 in relation to an old case against him.
On September 21, 2025, he was detained at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata after a magazine and six rounds of ammunition were detected by the scanner in the bag with which he was trying to board a plane.
Then he had claimed that he possessed proper documents of authorisation to carry those items and a valid licence for the firearm for which the magazines and ammunition were meant. He also claimed that since he was not carrying the documents then, he would later furnish them to the law enforcement agencies.
However, despite repeated reminders from the police, he never turned up to furnish the documents he claimed to possess. Finally, on Wednesday, the police arrested him and slapped charges against him under the Arms Act 1959.
“He was given sufficient time for furnishing those documents. But he failed to do that. Hence, a fresh FIR and a case were registered against him, and a new investigation was initiated. Finally, we arrested him today based on the fresh FIR and the fresh case,” said an investigation officer in the matter.
After being detained at the Kolkata Airport in September last year with the magazine and ammunition, the police faced questions on why they allowed Islam to go freely, just based on his verbal assurance of processing the necessary documents.
At that time, many people alleged that the police had deliberately given a long rope to Islam because of his political affiliations as an influential councillor in an important municipality under Diamond Harbour subdivision.
However, finally, he could not escape as the police arrested him on Wednesday.
(IANS)
