Kolkata, Dec 27 (IANS) In a significant development, it has come to light that Amit Kumar Mandal, a Booth Level Officer (BLO) from Katwa in the East Burdwan district, had gone missing after taking out a loan of Rs 50 lakh.

This loan may have contributed to his disappearance, and there are no connections to "pressure" from the Special Intensive Review (SIR) work.

According to the police, the BLO went missing after taking a loan of Rs 50 lakh. The police have informed the Election Commission about the investigation into the BLO's disappearance, sources said on Saturday.

Amit Kumar Mandal, the BLO for booth number 23 of the Katwa Assembly constituency, has been missing for the past four days. His family has approached the police to find him. Following this, the Election Commission had sought a report from the district police regarding this incident.

It is learnt that the police have submitted a report to the commission, informing them about the reason for Amit's disappearance.

According to police sources, the report mentions that Amit had taken a loan of approximately Rs 50 lakh from a bank. He invested that money in the stock market. However, he lost everything in the stock market and was burdened with a huge amount of debt. It is for this reason that the Katwa BLO left his home while the family assumed he went missing after failing to keep up with the "pressure" of SIR-related work.

Following this, the Election Commission had sought an investigation into the disappearance of the BLO.

Amit is a resident of the Bikihat area of Khajurdihi Panchayat in Katwa-I block. He is a teacher by profession and works at Uddharanpur Primary School in Ketugram.

According to his family, on Tuesday morning (December 23), around 10 a.m., Amit returned home from the market, parked his motorcycle and said that he had a meeting related to his BLO duties. However, he did not return home after leaving.

As the afternoon progressed and there was no word from him, the family became worried. During their search, they found his mobile phone, BLO identity card and SIR-related documents at home.

Despite extensive searches by family and relatives in various locations, Amit was still missing. Consequently, the family filed a missing person's report at the Katwa police station on Tuesday night. They also mentioned that Amit had been experiencing mental stress since assuming the responsibilities of a BLO.

Notably, there are 641 voters in Amit Kumar Mandal's Booth No. 23. He had distributed notices to 33 voters for the hearing.

Meanwhile, the hearing sessions on the claims and objections to the draft voters' list in West Bengal have started on Saturday. His presence as the BLO is mandatory there.

However, his disappearance has put the administration in a challenging position. According to sources, if Amit is still missing for the due time, then a replacement will be made to complete his unfinished work.

IANS

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