West Bengal post-poll violence: HC raps govt for delay in giving compensation to victims

The West Bengal government drew the ire of the Calcutta High Court on Monday for its delay in giving compensation to the victims of the post-poll violence. As the court had clearly given a direction to this effect in its order dated August 19, the division bench of Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj observed, "This shows the total casual attitude of the State in a serious matter". Meanwhile, the CBI and the SIT submitted their status reports in a sealed cover before the division bench.

After perusing the report, the HC noted that the CBI had registered 40 FIRs whereas charge sheet has been filed in 7 cases. At this juncture, Additional Solicitor General YJ Dastoor informed the court that the state government was cooperating with the central agency resulting in a smooth investigation. However, the bench took objection to the Mamata Banerjee-led government appointing 10 IPS officers to assist the SIT in its probe. 

While the state government asserted that these officers were selected after due consultation with the SIT members, it failed to submit minutes of the meeting held in this regard. Additionally, the court asked the authorities in WB to ensure proper security to retired HC Chief Justice Manjula Chellur until she is monitoring the SIT investigation. The matter will now come up for hearing on November 8. 

Post-poll violence in West Bengal

BJP, Congress, CPI(M), TMC and ISF were up in arms over the violence which claimed at least 16 lives after the declaration of poll results. Incidentally, one of the petitioners who moved the Calcutta HC over the post-poll violence in the state. At the outset, the 5-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justices IP Mukerji, Harish Tandon, Soumen Sen, and Subrata Talukdar directed the NHRC chairperson to form a committee to examine all complaints pertaining to the violence. In its report submitted on July 12, the NHRC committee had opined that the situation in the state is a manifestation of the 'Law of Ruler' instead of 'Rule of Law'.

Ruling that TMC's allegations of bias against the NHRC panel don't hold merit, the Calcutta HC agreed to order a CBI probe in cases of murder and crimes against women on August 19. It also entrusted all other cases referred by the NHRC to an SIT comprising IPS officers Suman Bala Sahoo, Soumen Mitra and Ranbir Kumar. Directing the state government to hand over all documents and records to the investigative agencies, it warned that any obstruction in the course of the probe will be taken very seriously.