HC pulls up Bengal police: ‘Will order Central forces to stay for next 5 years if post-poll violence is not controlled’
Hearing a PIL filed by an organisation, Rastrabadi Ainjeebi, the Division Bench of Justice Kausik Chanda and Justice Apurba Sinha Ray also issued a directive to the state government to allow people affected by violence to submit complaints to the state's Director General of Police (DGP) via email.
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A day before the counting on June 4, the Election Commission (EC) decided to extend the deployment of nearly 400 companies of Central forces in West Bengal for another 15 days till June 19. (Express photo by Partha Paul)Expressing dismay and concern over reports of alleged post-poll violence in West Bengal following the announcement of the Lok Sabha election results, the Calcutta High Court on Thursday said it may ask the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) to stay deployed in the state for the next five years if the state fails to control violence.
Hearing a PIL filed by an organisation, Rastrabadi Ainjeebi, the Division Bench of Justice Kausik Chanda and Justice Apurba Sinha Ray also issued a directive to the state government to allow people affected by violence to submit complaints to the state’s Director General of Police (DGP) via email.
“We want to ensure security of the people of the state at any cost,” the Bench said.
The court also ordered DGP Sanjay Mukhopadhyay to submit a report within 10 days on the number of post-poll violence complaints received by the police, the number of FIRs registered, and the subsequent actions taken, if any. The court also directed the police to upload on its website the received complaints immediately.
During the hearing, the counsel of petitioner, Susmita Saha Dutta, told the court that 11 people have died since the seven-phase polling in the state concluded last Saturday. “On June 1, the election process was completed. After that till Thursday, 11 people have died in post-poll violence,” Dutta told the court.
The Bench then asked, “How can we be convinced that 11 people have died?”
Dutta replied, “We have sufficient documents.”
Advocate General Kishore Dutta, representing the state government, intervened, saying: “These are not true.”
Justice Koushik Chanda said, “Every day, we are watching in the media about post-poll violence. What happened after the last Assembly election, the same thing is happening this time also. You (State) should be ashamed.”
“If the state fails to control this violence, we have to make a decision that in the next five years, the Central forces will stay in this state,” Justice Chanda added.
A day before the counting on June 4, the Election Commission (EC) decided to extend the deployment of nearly 400 companies of Central forces in West Bengal for another 15 days till June 19. The EC said the CAPF would be deployed primarily in areas and districts that are sensitive in terms of violence to prevent any untoward incident. Earlier, the Central forces were supposed to stay in the state till June 6 – two days after the counting of votes.
In August 2021, following violence after the Assembly election results, a five-judge bench of the High Court had ordered the formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT), comprising three IPS officers of the West Bengal cadre, to oversee investigations into post-poll violence-related complaints.
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