Calcutta high court seeks report from govt on Beldanga clashes

NEW DELHI: The Calcutta high court on Tuesday sought a report from the West Bengal police on the recent violence at Beldanga in Murshidabad district following two separate petitions by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in the state.
Koustav Bagchi, a lawyer and Bengal BJP leader, and state BJP unit chief Sukanta Majumdar, had filed separate petitions in the high court in connection with violence in Murshidabad’s Beldanga on November 16. The two petitions, which accused the police of not arresting the culprits and demanded the deployment of central police forces, were heard together.
A bench of justices Harish Tandon and Hiranmay Bhattacharyya said Bagchi had submitted that they had collected names of people who were either missing or had left their houses due to “inadequate measures” by the police for their safety.
“He is directed to disclose the names of those persons to the learned advocate general, who shall ensure that such persons are reinstated in their respective homes and adequate police personnel should be deployed there for their safety and security,” the bench said in its order.
West Bengal advocate general Kishore Dutta countered the claim. In a statement on Sunday, the Bengal police said 17 people including the president and secretary of the community puja committee accused of putting out provocative messages were arrested. “No casualty, repeat, no casualty has been reported anywhere in the district. Six persons were injured and are under proper treatment. Condition of all injured is stable. Situation is under control,” the statement on Sunday added.
Tuesday’s court order said: “The alleged incident between the two rival religious communities erupted on the eve of Kartick Puja, where several persons were injured, the houses were set ablaze and the hate messages through social media as well as by way of display through neon sign board spreading profanity amongst the section of the society. Several posts uploaded on the social media have corroborated such incident; some of which are annexed with the instant petitions.”
The court also asked the state government to identify a person seen making threats of violence in a video clip that led the district police to suspend internet services in the district till Tuesday.
“In course of the hearing, a video clipping of a person whose photographs are also annexed with one of the petitions are placed before us. The audio-video clippings were also shown to the court but the identity of the person could not be divulged by the appearing counsels. The state administration is directed to find out the identity of such person and appropriate steps to be taken against him which would be disclosed in the report to be filed tomorrow,” the court said.
“All the reliefs, including the deployment of the Central forces shall be considered after the report is filed by the police administration,” the court said.
The petitions will be heard again on Wednesday.