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Journalism of Courage
When eight members of an Enforcement Directorate (ED) team investigating the alleged ration distribution scam case in West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali were attacked and stopped by hundreds of locals on Friday, it was not the first time a Central investigative team had found itself amidst such an altercation in the state.
The ED officers were in the North 24 Parganas district, accompanied by Central forces personnel, for raids on local Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Shahjahan Sheikh’s residence. The ED team was trying to open the gates of the house when the protesters turned violent.
Former minister Jyoti Priya Mallick had been arrested by the ED in connection with the scam last October.
CBI vs CM
In 2019, a CBI team was stopped at the Kasba Police Station in Kolkata on its way to film producer Shrikant Mohta’s office in connection with the Rose Valley chit fund case.
Later that year, a CBI team was halted when it went to the then Kolkata Police Commissioner’s residence on Park Street to interrogate him in the Sarada chit fund case. A team at the Shakespeare Sarani police station first stopped the CBI outside Kumar’s residence. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee herself then sat on a 70-hour dharna in protest against the action at Kolkata’s Esplanade. Recently, Kumar was named the state’s Director General of Police.
NHRC teams attacked
After the 2021 Assembly elections, the BJP and other anti-TMC parties levelled allegations of poll-related violence against the ruling party. The Calcutta High Court ordered the CBI and National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to conduct an investigation.
But as Atif Rasheed, vice-chairperson of the National Commission for Minorities and a member of the NHRC team, was visiting the Jadavpur area in south suburban Kolkata, it came under attack.
Child rights panel faces heat
In April 2023, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) chief Priyank Kanoongo claimed assault by an officer at Kolkata’s Tiljala Police Station while examining the alleged murder of a 7-year-old girl by one of her neighbours. Kanoongo claimed that not only was he attacked, police personnel “secretly video recorded the NCPCR’s investigation”.
Kanoongo was allegedly stopped by the local administration in North Dinajpur district again last April when he went to meet the family of a 17-year-old girl who was allegedly raped and murdered. The state government claimed prohibitory orders had been imposed in the region. The West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights accused the national body of “doing politics” over the girl’s death.
