The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which is investigating the cases of post-poll violence and other similar offences during the assembly election in West Bengal as per an order of the Calcutta High Court, registered two more cases on Friday. With this, as per the CBI, the total number of cases registered by the agency in this connection has gone up to 35.
Out of these two fresh cases, the first case is related to the murder of a first-time voter and BJP supporter Anand Burman who was murdered at a polling booth on the day of polling on April 10 at the Sitalkuchi police station of Cooch Behar district of West Bengal. The complainant Gobindo Burman, a native of Pathan Tuli village, had gone to cast vote along with his brother Anand Burman when 12 people on four bikes arrived at the polling booth. They lobbed bombs and sprayed bullets that killed his brother and two others were injured.
The eyewitness had said that Anand who was the BJP supporter as killed when he had gone to vote. There was no history of personal enmity and it was only due to the fact that he worked for the BJP while the attackers worked for Trinamool Congress. 18 years old Anando was a first-time voter and his first meeting with democracy was greeted with bullets. The CBI in this case has booked 12 persons accused namely Hamkim Miyan, Karim Miyan, Baqsh Miyan, Mithun Miyan, Bulu Miyan, Tabul Miyan, Rintu Miyan, Hobi Miyan, Tapan Burman, Subash Burman, Nityanand Burman and Dineshwar Burman. They have been booked under various sections of IPC, Arms Act and Explosive Substances Act.
The second case is also related to a murder case lodged at Nodakhali police station under 24 Parganas district by one Ranjit Halder. There are 19 accused in this case. The incident had taken place on the afternoon of July 2. The victim alleged that the accused lynched her bhabhi Chandana Halder and seriously injured his elder brother Swaroop Halder.
Notably last week, the CBI had arrested 11 accused of their involvement in the post-poll violence where across West Bengal the BJP leaders, workers and supporters were murdered, assaulted and even raped allegedly by the supporters of Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool Congress. However, Bengal has a history of political violence, but, 2021 assembly election of West Bengal will be remembered for the worst ever political violence. Mamata Banerjee herself lost the Nandigram assembly seat but she retained power for the third consecutive term amid the tough contest offered by the BJP. But the workers and supporters of the BJP had to pay the price. The enormity and the scale of the crime were so huge that thousands of the BJP workers and supporters had to flee to other states to save their life and limbs due to the post-poll violence unleashed by TMC workers.
The Calcutta High Court was forced to order the court-monitored probe after reports and complaints that Bengal Police is ignoring the complaints of victims as no FIR in as many as 60 per cent cases were taken. The West Bengal State Legal Services Authority (SLSA) had recorded over a thousand complaints of post poll violence. Other than the CBI, the National Human Rights Commission also had carried probe regarding alleged cases of violations of human right in Bengal.
