Kolkata/Burdwan/Howrah: The Bengal Special Task Force (STF) on Monday arrested a 21-year-old college student in Howrah for allegedly being involved in a plot hatched by suspected Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) operative Hamim Mondal to abduct junior state minister Umesh Rai’s son.STF officers said Aditya Singh, alias Raj, a second-year BCom student at Umesh Chandra College in Kolkata, shared photographs and videos of Rai’s office, house and car with Hamim.Aditya, who was picked up from his apartment on Belilious Road in Howrah’s Tikiapara on Sunday night and arrested after prolonged questioning on Monday morning, was the third person taken into custody — after Hamim and his girlfriend, Arpita Sarkar — in the “terror-honey trap case” linked to JeM-Shahzad Bhatti gang. Sources close to Aditya’s family said his laptop and mobile phone had been seized.Officers said the youth had been photographing and video recording the car, house and one of the offices of Rai, Howrah North MLA and minister of state for urban development, since May. The office was earlier used by the minister’s wife when she was a Howrah Municipal Corporation councillor.“Hamim asked Aditya to track the minister and his family and promised him a hefty payment if the abduction plan succeeded,” said an officer.“I received many threats on WhatsApp and Instagram when I was in the opposition,” junior minister Rai said. “Around one-and-a-half months ago, I came to know that the person who was threatening me claimed to have killed Chandranath Rath (Suvendu Adhikari’s PA). I then approached the administration, which resulted in the probe.”Rai also said a Pakistani identifying himself as Abid Jat had called him and threatened to kill him and kidnap his son. The minister expressed his gratitude to CM Adhikari for the arrests in connection with the terror module case.Officers said Arpita, Hamim’s girlfriend, was tasked with honey-trapping Rai’s son. She allegedly used her social media presence to establish a contact and then develop a relationship with the youth. “Honey-trapping Rai’s son was part of a broader operation aimed at abducting him for extortion and to extract sensitive information from him,” an officer said.The state is considering charging Hamim and Arpita under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The STF and National Investigation Agency are questioning them and analysing their digital evidence, mobile records, funding sources and potential cross-border links. While Hamim was arrested in Burdwan last Thursday, Arpita was picked up from Jharkhand’s Barharwa a day later.Aditya was produced in the Burdwan District Judge’s Court on Monday afternoon and remanded in police custody for 12 days. His mother, Aarti Singh, and grandmother, Mira Singh, said he had been arrested based on false information. Both were questioned by STF.
