Kolkata: A three-member committee appointed by the Calcutta High Court to investigate last month's communal violence in Murshidabad has reported significant police negligence and indifference in controlling the situation before the deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF).
Sources indicate that the committee detailed these lapses in a report submitted to the High Court’s special division bench, comprising Justices Soumen Sen and Raja Basu Chowdhury, which was specifically constituted to address matters related to the Murshidabad violence.
Violence erupted in several areas of Murshidabad, including Dhulian, Suti, and Samserganj, on April 8. The situation escalated, prompting the deployment of CAPF on the night of April 12, following an order issued by the special division bench earlier that evening.
In its directive for CAPF deployment, the bench noted that the West Bengal government's response to the communal unrest—sparked by protests against the newly enacted Waqf (Amendment) Act—was insufficient in curbing the violence.
The special division bench also observed that had the CAPF deployment been earlier, the situation would not have been so “grave” and “volatile”.
Now, the contents of the fresh report given by the three-member committee are totally in line with the observation made by the division bench on April 12.
A local councillor, Mehbub Alam, was identified in the report as the key conspirator behind the violence, with police failing to take action against him at the time.
According to the findings, the attacks on April 11, beginning at 2 p.m., were orchestrated by Alam, who personally arrived at the scene with miscreants while law enforcement remained inactive.
The report also names Amirul Islam, who allegedly visited the site, pinpointed houses that had not yet been destroyed, and directed attackers to set them ablaze.
As per the report, a total of 113 houses were damaged, and valuables worth lakhs, including jewellery, cash, furniture, and livestock, were looted. The report had also given details of how the district police ignored repeated calls from the members of the victim families. Although the local police station was just 300 metres from where all these incidents took place, the cops took no action.
(inputs from IANS)