Communal violence in state during Ram Navami incited by BJP: Abhishek

Kolkata/Alipurduar: At a time when the Calcutta High Court on Thursday ordered a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe in connection with the violence that had taken place in Howrah and Rishra during Ram Navami rally, TMC’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said that the very reason such communal violence took place is because the people voted for BJP in the 2019 Parliamentary elections.

The State government has been directed to handover the documents related to the investigation of the violence cases to the NIA within two weeks.

During the rally of Ram Navami, violence had erupted in Shibpur of Howrah and Rishra of Hooghly under the jurisdiction of Chandannagar Police Commissionerate.

In Shibpur a vehicle was allegedly torched and several houses were vandalised.

In Rishra police vehicles were torched and stones were pelted on moving trains. Due to the incident, train services were hampered for several hours. A large contingent of police force was deployed in both places to control the situation. Later Calcutta High Court ordered the deployment of Central forces during the Hanuman Jayanti to evade any untoward incident.

On Thursday the Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya ordered a NIA probe into the matter. Concerned police units have been directed to handover the FIRs, documents, materials seized and CCTV footage to the NIA within two weeks.

Abhishek, who is presently campaigning in North Bengal region ahead of Panchayat elections in the state, said during his public meeting at Alipurduar that the very reason such communal violence took place surrounding Ram Navami was because the people voted for the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He alleged that the consequence of the BJP coming to power is such a gross display of weapons during Ram Navami rallies across the country followed by violence.

Reacting to the issue, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said that in most cases which are left to Central investigation agencies, facts do not get to see the light of day. He said that Central probe agencies are mostly working at the behest of the BJP.

“With the NIA taking charge, one can be rest assured that the goons brought in by the BJP from Bihar to create violence will go scot-free. It is also noteworthy that NIA is never asked to probe cases in BJP-ruled states. Had Central agencies worked impartially then Suvendu Adhikari would have been arrested in the Narada case since he has been named in the FIR,” Kunal alleged.