The West Bengal unit of the BJP submitted a memorandum to Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, demanding imposition of President’s rule in the state, following the gruesome incidents in Birbhum in which 10 people, including two children, were burnt alive.
While the police began investigation, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee set up a SIT, headed by the additional director general of police Ganwyant Singh, to probe the incident.
Singh left for Birbhum’s Rampurhat, while the CID, being the nodal agency of NIA in Bengal, has started parallel probe as there is a report suggested that the houses were torched using powerful bombs.
Hours after the killing of Bhadu Sheikh, deputy panchyat chief, his associates began torching the houses of people in Bogtui village, local sources told THE WEEK.
Many were carrying bombs and they hurled them particularly at the two-storied house of a local TMC leader, leading to the deaths. Two among the seven people admitted to the hospital are in critical condition.
Unlike the widespread violence that followed shortly after the polls, in which 52 opposition party members of BJP and CPI(M) were killed in three days, the degrading of law and order is only sporadic. From the day of the process of election till May, 303 opposition workers were killed in Bengal.
The CBI inquiry has been going on and Calcutta High Court recently ordered security cover for the families of victims as they have been threatened by the ruling party to turn hostile during the hearings.
Even the ruling party members are not safe as 27 TMC members have been killed in the past five days, including those in Birbhum. In Panihati, on the outskirts of Kolkata, five people were killed, including two TMC councilors.
“The police would not be able to do anything in this circumstances as such violence is backed by the local political leaders. This is the worst case of political violence as the criminals are not even worried about police actions,” a senior IPS officer said.
“In this scenario, along with demand of imposition of Article 356, we plea to you that all women MLAs of Bengal be given protection,” the BJP delegation asked governor in their memorandum.
