Buddha Govt orders judicial inquiry into Dinhata firing

Accepting the demand of Left Front partner Forward Bloc, the West Bengal Government ordered a judicial inquiry on Sunday..

Accepting the demand of Left Front partner Forward Bloc, the West Bengal Government ordered a judicial inquiry on Sunday into the February 5 police firing at Dinhata, Cooch Behar, which killed five Bloc supporters.

A one-line statement issued by the Government said: “The state Government has decided to appoint a judicial commission to probe into the police firing at Dinhata.” Apart from the five Bloc supporters, one NVF member too had died in the violence.

Chief Secretary Amit Kiran Deb told The Indian Express: “The name of the judge, terms of reference and other details of the commission will be finalised on Tuseday.”

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But the decision of the state Government did not entirely satisfy the Bloc. “We welcome this announcement but we also want that the Government meet our two other demands— punishment of the police officers guilty of the carnage and withdrawal of all cases filed against our supporters,” said Ashok Ghosh, Bloc state secretary.

On Monday, party general secretary Debabrata Biswas will be in Dinhata to visit the families of the victims. As promised by the party, he will also hand over cheques for Rs 3 lakh to each family.

On February 12, Biswas will address a rally at Sithai adjacent to Dinhata. Udayan Guha, Bloc secretary of Cooch Behar district, who led the rally of February 5, criticised the state police, for being “oppressive”. “They have become worse than police during the British Raj. They have no hesitation in firing on supporters of a Front partner. And later, they file false cases against us,” Guha told The Indian Express.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who expressed his regrets over the incident, has already ordered an administrative inquiry into it.

Regarding the recent criminal activities carried out by the gang, ADG Krishnan said that one Aditya Kumar was shot dead by Ranjan Pathak and his associates on July 18 in the Bajpatti police station area.

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