West Bengal: Election official in charge of EVMs found in Howrah a week after he went missing
Arnab Roy went missing on April 18 when he had gone for poll duty to Bipradas Choudhury Polytechnic College in Nadia district.
A nodal officer of the Election Commission who went missing from Krishnanagar in West Bengal on April 18 was traced to a house in Howrah on Thursday, PTI reported. However, reports varied on where the state’s Crime Investigation Department found the officer, Arnab Roy.
An unidentified CID officer said Roy was found by tracking the location of his mobile phone. “We have found Roy from a house in Howrah this morning,” the officer said. “He is fine.”
When asked if Roy was abducted or hiding on his own, the officer said: “We will talk to him to find out what actually happened.”
Nishat Parvez, deputy inspector general of CID (Operations), told The Indian Express: “Yes, he has been found. He is fine. We traced him with the help of his tower location from Howrah Station.”
Roy was in charge of electronic voting machines and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails in Krishnanagar in Ranaghat constituency in Nadia district. On the morning of April 18, he had left his official quarters in Krishnanagar for poll duty at Bipradas Choudhury Polytechnic College after which he went missing. His vehicle was found parked outside the college.
On April 19, Special Observer for West Bengal Ajay V Nayak had said Roy’s disappearance was not related to the elections and that he had probably gone missing due to “personal issue” or suffered from depression. The following day, Roy’s wife Anisha Jash, a deputy magistrate, wrote on Facebook that her husband was not depressed.