West Bengal Violence: Plea In Supreme Court Seeks Deployment Of Protection Forces For Restoration Of Law & Order Situation

  • Shruti Kakkar
  • 04:30 PM, 04 May 2021

Read Time: 11 minutes

Amid the widespread violence & disruption of law & order that has erupted in the aftermath of the assembly elections & the failure of the state machinery in protecting the life & liberty of the citizens, a plea has been filed in Supreme Court for issuing directions to the Centre for deployment of central protection forces including armed forces, for the restoration of law & order in the State of West Bengal. 

It has been argued that the current state of affairs in West Bengal is so dangerous & wrought with internal disturbance that urgent intervention of this Court & deployment of central forces is the need of the hour.

Indic Collective Trust has preferred the present plea drawn & filed by Advocate J Sai Deepak & Advocate Suvidutt M.S stating that the reliefs sought in the plea are imperative to protect the life & property of the people of West Bengal under Article 21 of the Constitution of India which is being brazenly violated in pursuance of political vendetta by members & supporters of the All India Trinamool Congress.

The petitioners aver that the given prevailing atmosphere of fear in West Bengal makes it unrealistic for the citizens from that State to either approach the Supreme Court or the High Court for the real & legitimate fear of being identified & persecuted or worse.

“The nature of the videos and content doing the rounds across the various social media platforms is so gory and gruesome that the collective conscience of the citizens has been shaken. Homes and shops of ordinary civilians have been mercilessly destroyed and razed to the ground by miscreants and goons. Some of these videos show offices and/ or headquarters belonging to the opposing parties being vandalized, ransacked and set on fire by the local goons who support the ruling party. The videos further show that members and workers of these offices, including women, were publicly shamed and brutally beaten to death. Several eminent journalists and/ or political activists have drawn the attention of the administration including that of the Central and State authorities to urgently deal with the situation at hand.”, the plea states. 

The plea has further prayed for constitution of a Special Investigation Team headed by a judge of the Supreme Court to look into involvement of politicians, if any, in the targeted pogrom in West Bengal, for issuance of directions for immediate arrest of & prosecution against all individuals involved and/or responsible for the commission of heinous offences in the aftermath of the assembly elections. The plea also prays for issuance of directions for setting up and/or establishing a special court to adjudicate & dispose of matters pertaining to the prosecution of political miscreants and/or individuals involved in commission of heinous offences & for declaration that the Constitutional Machinery has broken down in the State of West Bengal within the meaning of Art 356 of the Constitution of India.

Further, BJP leader & Senior Advocate Gaurav Bhatia has also filed an application in Supreme Court seeking CBI Probe into the rampant violence, murders & rapes that have been carried out by the workers of TMC across the State of West Bengal before, during & after the recently concluded assembly elections in the State. The application has been filed in a writ petition titled as Gaurav Bhatia v. State of West Bengal in which Bhatia sought CBI probe into the alleged murder of BJP Activist Dulal Kumar in the State of West Bengal.

As per media reports, this violence is directly sponsored by the ruling party through its workers who are seeking revenge against the citizenry of the State which has exercised its democratic right of voting for a party other than TMC. That the perpetrators of crime who should be booked & punished in accordance with law are being protected by the ruling dispensation”, the application reads.

The application while referring to the murder of Avijit Sarkar, an ordinary citizen of Belaghata in Kolkata highlights the great dance of democracy that is currently underway in West Bengal under the protection of TMC. In this context, it has also been stated that Mr Sarkar in a video uploaded on Facebook moments before his death highlighted how the TMC workers not only ransacked his house & NGO but also mercilessly killed voiceless puppies & specifically blamed TMC for his attack & his eventual death. 

Highlighting the aforesaid incident, the applicant avers that this clearly enunciates the manner in which the TMC has been conducting its affairs without any deterrence whatsoever. It has also been submitted that the TMC has been exercising undue influence over the police & other enforcement agencies in as much as no FIR’s have been registered against any alleged party worker for their acts of crime thereby violating the guidelines enumerated by the Apex Court in Lalita Kumari v Govt of UP (2014) 2 SCC 1. 

The application also seeks for issuing directions to the State of West Bengal to file a status report qua the FIR’s registered, arrests made & steps taken by it against the perpetrators of the crimes mentioned in the instant application.