WB: NHRC Calls for CBI Probe Into Post-Poll Violence, CM Accuses Panel of 'Leaking' Report

 'The BJP is now using impartial agencies to settle political scores and malign our state,' Mamata Banerjee said.

  File image of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee at a press conference. Photo: West Bengal CMO via PTI

 

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday, July 15, accused the National Human Rights Commission of “disrespecting the court” and pursuing the Bharatiya Janata Party’s line of “political vendetta” by leaking its report on alleged post-poll violence in the state to the media.

The NHRC has reportedly called for a CBI probe into the violence.

Banerjee also expressed surprise over the conclusion that the NHRC arrived at in its report and said it had not taken into account the views of the state government.

“The BJP is now using impartial agencies to settle political scores and malign our state. The NHRC should have respected the court. Instead of leaking the findings to the media, it should have first submitted the same to the court. What would you call it other than political vendetta of the BJP? It is yet to digest defeat (in the assembly polls) and that is why the party is resorting to such tricks,” she told reporters at a press conference in Kolkata.

Asserting that the situation in West Bengal is a “manifestation of law of ruler instead of rule of law”, an NHRC committee probing alleged incidents of post-poll violence in the state, has recommended a CBI probe into “grievous offences like murder and rape”.

 

The committee, which was formed by the NHRC chairman on a direction by a five- judge bench of the high court, has placed the report before the Calcutta high court on June 13.

The panel’s report says, “Spatio-temporal expanse of violent incidents in the state of West Bengal reflects the appalling apathy of the state government towards plight of victims.”

The vice-chairman of the National Commission for Minorities Ateef Rasheed, who was a member of the NHRC panel had claimed that he and other members of the team were attacked by hooligans while in Kolkata.

A bunch of PILs filed before the high court had alleged that people were subjected to assault, made to flee homes, and property was destroyed in post-poll violence in Bengal.

“This was retributive violence by supporters of the ruling party against supporters of the main opposition party,” the NHRC committee said.

 

In individual reports on The Wire, Snigdhendu Bhattacharya and Sreya Sarkar have essayed how violence in parts of Bengal have disproportionately affected people, especially ground level BJP workers and supporters, across the state.

(With PTI inputs)

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(With input from news agency language)

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