Kolkata, Nov 15 (IANS): A court in West Bengal's Alipurduar district on Tuesday evening issued an arrest warrant against Union Minister of State for Home Nisith Pramanik.

The Alipurduar Judicial Third Court has issued the warrant against Pramanik, the BJP MP from Cooch Behar, in connection with his alleged involvement in a burglary case in two jewellery shops in Alipurduar in 2009.

Public Prosecutor in the matter, Prasanata Narayan Majumdar informed media persons that initially the matter was heard by a court at Barasat in North 24 Parganas district. "However, later the case came before the Alipurduar Judicial Third Court. On November 11, 2022, the other accused in the case moved bail petitions. But there was no such move on part of Nisith Pramanik."

Majumdar said that after Pramanik became an MP in 2019, the case was transferred to the special court for MP/MLAs at Barasat. However, later the case was transferred to the Alipurduar Judicial Third Court following a directive of the Calcutta High Court.

Till the time the report was filed there was no reaction from Pramanik on this count.

Pramanik had also contested the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections and got elected from Dinhata assembly constituency in Cooch Behar district. However, as BJP lost, Pramanik chose to retain his Lok Sabha seat and resigned from the Assembly.

He started his political journey with Trinamool Congress. However, before the 2018 polls for three-tier panchayat system, he disassociated himself from the Trinamool and fielded his followers as independent candidates in 2018, many of whom got elected. Thereafter he joined the BJP and successfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Cooch Behar.

Earlier too, he got involved in controversies as in 2021, Congress's then Rajya Sabha member, Ripun Bora wrote a letter to Prime Minister, Narendra Modi alleging that Pramanik is a Bangladeshi and his nationality should be investigated. The BJP however dismissed these allegations as baseless.