West Bengal Post-Poll Violence: ‘Police Threatening Victims Not To File Complaint’, Alleges NHRC Team Member

In the latest development in the probe of post-poll violence in West Bengal, National Commission for Minorities vice-chairman and member of NHRC team, Atif Rasheed on Thursday said that the state police force was threatening victims to not file complaints into the matter, reports Times Now.

He stated that the only fault of the people was that they voted for the BJP, for which they are now being tortured by the police.

“The public is scared of police. Their fault is they voted for BJP. Why is the police torturing for voting? The police is threatening victims not to file complaint,” Atif Rasheed told Murshidabad Superintendent of Police.

Notably, Rasheed in on a three day visit of the state from 6 July to 9 July, and will visit the affected areas in Malda and Murshidabad.

In his earlier visit to the state, Rasheed had alleged that he was attacked in Jadavpur

The team, led by NHRC member and National Commission For Minorities Vice Chairman Atif Rasheed, had gone to Jadavpur Tuesday (29 June) afternoon to see for itself houses of scores of BJP supporters that had been looted and ransacked.

Rasheed, a former student leader of Delhi University, posted photographs (see this, this and this) of the damaged houses of BJP workers and supporters, most of them Dalits. All these workers and supporters who fled after their homes were attacked are yet to return.

Soon after the NHRC member started inspecting the abandoned houses and taking photographs, a murderous gang of Trinamool supporters converged and started shouting and heckling him. CISF jawans who had escorted Rasheed managed to keep them at bay (watch this video clip).

After spending some time there, Rasheed realised that the situation could turn ugly and started walking towards his vehicle. The angry group of Trinamool supporters followed him, baying for his blood.

The Trinamool supporters even pushed and fought with the CISF jawans to get hold of Rasheed. The NHRC member tweeted a clip of the murderous mob of Trinamool supporters chasing him. He also came down heavily on the state police who did nothing to hold back the mob and remained mute spectators.

Rasheed is part of the team constituted by the NHRC chairperson on the 18 June orders of the Calcutta High Court to probe post-poll violence and displacement of thousands of BJP workers and supporters.

The NHRC team visited various parts of the state and met thousands of victims of post-poll violence perpetrated by Trinamool goons. Large crowds thronged the CRPF camp at Salt Lake on Sunday and Monday (27 and 28 June) to meet the NHRC team and register their complaints.

The Mamata Banerjee government fears that the NHRC report will be a damning one and will lead to severe embarrassment. That is why, say observers, the ruling party is provoking its supporters to heckle the NHRC probe team members in order to scare them away and prevent them from collecting any more evidence about post-poll violence that can cause problems for the state government.