[West Bengal Post Poll Violence] Supreme Court Issues Notice To The State; Matter To be listed After Two Weeks

Supreme Court continued hearing plea seeking CBI/SIT probe into killings of BJP workers, Avijit Sarkar, Haran Adhikari and other large scale incidents of violence unleashed in the State of West Bengal post elections.

A Division Bench of Justice Vineet Saran and Justice BR Gavai, while hearing the matter, said, “You file your counter (to all the respondents), we will have it in two weeks.”

Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra appeared for the State, the main contesting party;

Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani appeared for the petitioner;

Amit Sharma, AOR appeared for Respondent 4;

SGI, Mr Mehta for the Union.

Advocate Ravi Sharma and Senior Advocate Bikash Ranjan sought impleadment in the matter. Court agreed to list the same on the next date of hearing.

Senior Advocate Luthra informed the Court that there are two separate 5-Judge bench constituted by the Calcutta High Court; one with respect to MLAs and Bail matter the second specific to Post Poll Violence.

On the last date of hearing, Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani submitted that Attacks on BJP workers were pre-mediated and orchestrated.

“The indiscriminate killing of innocents is continuing across all districts of the State of West Bengal in a coordinated manner. The State Government has abdicated its responsibility. The law enforcement agencies are failing to function and acting as mute spectators at the instructions of the State Government as their party cadres go on a rampage unchecked. The investigation is stage managed. Owing to the sensitive nature of the cases and lackadaisical attitude of the law enforcement agencies, constitution of a SIT is imperative”, states the plea.