S N Roychoudhury, secretary of the state election commission, said: “It is not our job to see who is given which duty.”

SP Panda said: “What can I say? Please ask my superiors. The order to deploy him for poll duty in Nandigram came from the higher-ups.”

Chakraborty had earlier been booked for his role in the investigation of a murder case in Hooghly district and was suspended for six months. He also had a case pending against him in a Haldia court for assaulting a woman. Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee also named him in an FIR, alleging inaction and a partisan role when she was prevented from entering a village in Nandigram recently.

When Chakraborty’s comments were sought, he said: “I just did my duty as ordered by my superiors. Nobody told me I am off poll-duty. If that was so, then how I could I have been there. It is true that I was suspended for sometime years ago but I was reinstated. I still stand by what I said and did yesterday.”