Another Setback For Mamata Banerjee: Calcutta HC Orders CBI Probe Into Attack On Junior Home Minister By Trinamool Cadres

The Trinamool Congress government in Bengal has suffered another setback with the Calcutta High Court ruling in favour of a plea for a CBI probe into the attack on Union Minister of State for Home, Nisith Pramanik, allegedly by Trinamool cadres, on 25 February this year. 

The plea was filed by leader of Opposition and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Suvendu Adhikari after the Bengal police, instead of booking the attackers, started arresting BJP workers who were accompanying the Union Minister. 

Pramanik, the Lok Sabha MP from Cooch Behar in North Bengal, was on a visit to his constituency when Trinamool cadres allegedly attacked his convoy. They allegedly hurled stones at his vehicle and showed black flags. 

The front windshield of the SUV that Pramanik was traveling in was smashed, though no one sustained any serious injuries. BJP workers had staged angry demonstrations immediately after the attack. 

But the Sahibganj police station (in Cooch Behar district) refused to lodge an FIR on a complaint by the CISF which was protecting Pramanik.

Instead of acting against the attackers, the police started rounding up and arresting BJP workers who had protested the attack on the Union Minister’s convoy and slapped false charges against them. 

Adhikari had, in his plea, argued that the police action against those who protested the attack was evidence of the Bengal Police’s bias, due to which a proper investigation into the incident would not be possible. 

A division bench of the Calcutta High Court comprising Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava and Justice Rai Chattopadhyay ruled in favour of Adhikari’s plea for a CBI probe. 

“Considering the fact that the attack was on the convoy of the Union Minister of State for Home and the allegation is in respect of a larger conspiracy to cause bodily harm to him, we are of the view that to ensure fair, unbiased and neutral investigation, it is necessary that the investigation is carried out by an independent agency,” the HC division bench said in its order. 

The division bench also concurred with the petitioner’s plea that the Bengal Police were biased.

The bench observed that the report by the Cooch Behar police “tend to support the allegations that there is an attempt to shift the responsibility upon workers of the principal Opposition party in the state”. 

The High Court bench also said that Cooch Behar police seemed to have concluded even at the start of its investigation about the identity of the guilty. 

Referring to the refusal of the state police to register an FIR on the complaint by the CISF, the court said: “The incident is admitted and is of a serious nature relating to the attack on the car and convoy of the Minister of State for Home of the Union of India. Therefore, non-registration of complaint promptly supports the apprehension in the mind of the petitioner. That apart, the complaint mentions the names of as many as 30 offenders, but no prompt action against them is reflected”. 

The Bengal government requested the division bench to accept its plea for a stay on its order (for the CBI probe). But the request was rejected and the bench asked the CBI to commence its investigations “forthwith”. 

“This order of the Calcutta High Court is another tight slap in the face of the Bengal Police which acts as an adjunct of the Trinamool. This is not the first time that the judiciary has expressed its complete lack of faith in the competence and impartiality of the Bengal Police. The police brass should be ashamed and should introspect,” Adhikari told Swarajya. 

He said that the CBI probe would not only net the guilty, but would also “expose the conspiracy hatched by the Trinamool Congress to kill the Union Minister” and also the “Bengal police’s complicity”.