The Supreme Court on Monday directed the West Bengal government to file a report within two weeks on the investigation into the alleged killing of three Bharatiya Janata Party workers in the state after local body elections earlier this year, reported PTI.
The court was hearing a plea filed by advocate and BJP leader Gaurav Bhatia. Earlier, the Mamata Banerjee-led state government said the court should not encourage such petitions.
Kapil Sibal, counsel for the West Bengal government, said it was incorrect to say that the police were not taking any action in the murder cases. “At the time when the petition was filed, several people were arrested with regard to those crimes,” he said. “We will file a detailed reply with respect to the investigation done in a sealed cover.”
However, Bhatia said that the police took action only after a notice was issued on his plea.
The Supreme Court will hear the case after two weeks.
On August 24, the top court had asked the state government to respond to a plea seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the murders of three BJP workers in the state. The party accused the Trinamool Congress of carrying out the murders.
In his petition, Bhatia alleged that the police have not lodged First Information Reports in the murders of Shaktipada Sarkar, Tirlochan Mahato and Dulal Kumar in the last three months. Their family members have allegedly been threatened, he added.
The three murders
Unidentified assailants killed Sarkar in South 24 Parganas district on July 27 after which two Trinamool Congress booth presidents were arrested.
In June, the West Bengal Crime Investigation Department arrested a man from Purulia district in connection with the murder of 20-year-old Mahato – who the BJP claimed was its member – on May 30. A message scrawled on Mahato’s T-shirt said he had been murdered for working for the saffron party. The BJP claimed it was a political murder linked to the violent civic body elections in the state.
Dulal Kumar was found hanging from an electric tower in Purulia in June. Doctors at a government hospital, however, said in the autopsy report that the 30-year-old had committed suicide. BJP workers, however, rejected the autopsy report and called the death a “political murder”. While the BJP claimed that he was a party worker, his mother said the family supported the Trinamool Congress.
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