Mamata demands Amit Shah's resignation, urges all to keep calm
Kolkata/Siliguri: Urging people to maintain calm, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee blammed Union Home Minister Amit Shah for the violence at Cooch Behar's Sitalkuchi in which four people were shot dead by CISF, and termed it as a "coldblooded" murder.
In the same breath she assured of carrying out a thorough probe by the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to "dig out the truth" behind the killing of voters that "tantamount to murder of democracy".
Incidentally four persons were shot dead and four others were critically injured when Central forces opened fired in booth number 126 at Sitalkuchi in Cooch Behar on Saturday. The EC, however, imposed a restriction in the entry of any political leader in Cooch Behar for the next 72 hours.
Lambasting Shah stating it to be an outfall of his conspiracies knowing well that BJP is not winning the Bengal election, she gave a call to the people to avenge the killing through ballots. "I will still urge people to maintain peace. One bullet cannot be the reply for another. We have to avenge it by casting our votes," she said mocking the justification of "self defence" for open firing and demanding proof of any attack on the jawans. She said: "I have heard that eye witnesses were threatened and forced to delete video clips of the incidents from their cell phones. How can they say it was in self defence? Where is the evidence that they were being attacked? After having committed murder how can they give their own selves clean chits?"
Banerjee, who held a Press conference after reaching Siliguri, stated that she would be visiting Mathabhanga Hospital — where the mortal remains of the four are being kept — at about 9:30 am on Sunday. Ex-gratia will be given to the families of the
deceased.
In all her public meetings in North 24-Parganas on Saturday, Banerjee trained guns at Prime Minister Narendra Modi questioning as to why he did not visit the grieving family despite attending an election rally in Siliguri at the time of the incident.
"Is it an example of Achhe Din that Narendra Modi has gifted to the people, where innocent people were killed while queuing up to cast votes and it has happened in a country where election is considered to be a festival," she said, adding that the situation is worse than that of the Panchayat polls as 17 to 18 people including 12 TMC workers were killed in the run up of the Assembly polls despite a record number of Central force being deployed to ensure a free and fair election.
Criticising the EC for changing officers as per the demand of the BJP, she alleged that it utterly failed to conduct a peaceful election as the officers they are appointing are not even familiar with the terrain and the people.
She condemned the Cooch Behar SP's statement that the Central force open fired when a mob tried to snatch away their fire arms, she said: "He is a BJP appointed SP. What he has said is a shame."
She gave a clarion call to all the Chief Minister's of Opposition-run states to unite and speak up against the ECI's way of conducting elections, favouring a particular party.
She also raised a question that how come a retired officer Vivek Dubey (special police observer) can work in EC when retired officers of her office are removed.
