Kolkata, April 20 -- In a police crackdown before the first phase of the West Bengal Assembly election, 135 persons with known criminal antecedents and criminal charges were arrested from four districts going to the hustings on April 23, a senior Election Commission of India (ECI) offical said on Monday.
The arrests were made in a single overnight operation spread across four districts including Cooch Behar, Malda, Murshidabad and South 24 Parganas.
The arrests came in the wake of directions from the Election Commission of India (ECI), which had ordered the state police to identify and act against known troublemakers and people with criminal records and pending cases at police stations across the state.
Last week, senior ECI officials he...