BSF camp to remain in communal tension-hit pocket in Murshidabad: Calcutta HC

Kolkata, July 31 (IANS) The Calcutta High Court on Thursday ruled that the Border Security Force (BSF) camp at Samserganj in West Bengal's minority-dominated Murshidabad district, where communal tension and a riot-like situation broke out in April this year, would stay till further orders.

A division bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury held that the BSF camp at Samserganj would continue since the West Bengal Police's special investigation team (SIT), which was constituted to probe the communal tension and riot-like situation there, is yet to complete its investigation in the matter.

At the same time, the bench also directed the state government to take appropriate steps, including compensation, after properly evaluating the losses incurred because of the riot-like situation in the district in April.

It also directed the state government to take appropriate steps for the restoration of the damaged property in the communal violence. The matter will come up again for hearing on September 18.

The special investigation team probing the matter has already filed subsequent charge sheets in the matter. The state government had also submitted a report to the court on the loss incurred in the violence. A total of 583 persons have been arrested so far in this connection.

In May this year, West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose had sent a report to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs on the communal violence at Murshidabad, where he reportedly suggested consideration of the provision of Article 356 of the Indian Constitution, providing for the imposition of Central rule.

In his report, the Governor clearly said that the West Bengal government failed to curb the communal violence in the state despite successfully handling the Left-Wing Extremist (LWE) terror in the past.

In the report, the Governor also highlighted the shortcomings in the police infrastructure in West Bengal, shortage of manpower, and that too inadequately equipped, which often prompts the deployment of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) in crisis-like situations like the one that erupted in Murshidabad.

--IANS

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