E-Paper
‘Misleading’: Bengal counters plea for CBI probe in post-poll violence
Nirmalya Ghoshal said 16 people were killed in violence in two days (May 2-3), five people in the next two days (May 3-5), and one person was killed in the next five days (May 5-9).
Most deaths during the post-poll violence in West Bengal took place when the model code of conduct was in place and the state police was under the control of the Election Commission, the West Bengal government has told the Supreme Court, countering petitions that accused the state police of not doing enough to curb the violence after the Trinamool Congress returned to power and sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
“The instant writ petition reeks of political motivation by adopting a misleading narrative and shows that the state administration is complicit with the wrong-doers in the alleged incidents of violence,” the affidavit by Nirmalya Ghoshal, additional secretary of West Bengal’s home department said.
Ghoshal said 16 people were killed in violence in two days (May 2-3), five people in the next two days (May 3-5), and one person was killed in the next five days (May 5-9).
“From the declaration of WB Assembly Election Results on May 2, 2021 till May 3, 2021, the law and order machinery including both Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) and the State Police was under the superintendence of the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the model code of conduct (MCC) remained in force till May 3 and thus, the ECI was in charge of the law and order situation in the State till the MCC was lifted.”
Soon after MCC was lifted and the new government under chief minister Mamata Banerjee took oath on May 5, “the incidents of violence had reduced drastically and the law and order situation was brought to normality.”
The state was responding to two petitions demanding an independent agency or Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the killing of party workers belonging to the rival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) allegedly by persons belonging to the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) party.
The petitions alleged total inaction by the state police and administration, prompting the judges to seek responses from the state government as well as National Human Rights Commission, National Commission for Women, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, National Commission for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and National Commission for Backward Classes.
A bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and MR Shah will consider the affidavits filed by the parties when it takes up the matter on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court is hearing two petitions including one filed by social activist Arun Mukherjee and four others to seek compensation and rehabilitation of persons displaced due to violence. This petition also accused inaction by police to register complaints of victims and demanded a probe into the incidents.
The second petition was filed by family members of two BJP workers, Abhijit Sarkar and Haran Adhikari, killed during the violence.
Two applications for intervention have also been filed in support of the petitions by a 60-year-old woman and a minor who alleged rape by Trinamool Congress supporters. The woman alleged that five people barged into her house on May 4-5 night, raped her in front of her six-year-old grandson, and left with all her valuables and property title documents. In the other application, the minor belonging to Scheduled Caste was gang-raped by four men on May 9. Later, her family was threatened not to pursue the case by persons linked to a local TMC leader. Both applicants have demanded transfer of probe to SIT since they don’t trust the police investigation.
The West Bengal government has called the petitions “politically motivated” and “misleading” as it concealed the fact that issues raised by them significantly overlapped with proceedings pending before a five-judge bench of the Calcutta high court. The high court had formed a three-member committee to examine the issues of persons displaced due to violence and ordered all complaints by victims to be forwarded to the Director General of Police in the state. As an interim measure, the state government announced compensation of ₹2 lakh for families of the deceased.
