Chief Justice of India Sharad Arvind Bobde on Monday acknowledged that political parties sometimes use the Supreme Court to settle scores, The Hindu reported. He made the remark while hearing a plea filed by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Gaurav Bhatia seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the deaths of three party workers – Shaktipad Sarkar, Tirlochan Mahato and Dulal Kumar – in West Bengal’s Purulia district.

Bhatia, an advocate, claimed that the killings of the three party workers, with the body of Kumar found hanging from a high-tension electric post, showed how the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal dealt with its political opponents.

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Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the West Bengal government, countered, arguing that the court should decide whether a member of a political party could really file public interest petitions. Sibal said a board of five doctors had already certified Kumar’s death as suicide. The police have already filed a closure report, he added. However, the court directed the West Bengal government to file a response within four weeks.

Replying to Sibal, Bobde said: “We are conscious that Opposition parties are also using the forum of this court. This goes for both sides.” According to India Today, he added, addressing both Sibal and Bhatia: “It will be better if both of you can go to a TV channel and settle scores there.”

There has been a spate of political killings in West Bengal over the past few years, with BJP, Trinamool Congress and Left party workers all facing the brunt.

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Kumar’s body was found hanging from an electric post in June 2018. The BJP claimed that Kumar was a party worker. Kumar’s mother, however, said that they all support the Trinamool Congress.

On May 30, 2018, Trilochan Mahato was found hanging from a tree in Balarampur in West Bengal’s Purulia district. “This is for doing BJP politics from age 18,” read a message scrawled on 20-year-old Mahato’s T-shirt and on a piece of paper found near his feet. “Been trying to kill you since the vote. Failed. Today you are dead.”