In the Narkeldanga area of Kolkata, two men were arrested on suspicion of killing BJP worker Abhijit Sarkar on May 2, just after the assembly poll results were announced, police said.
After the May-April assembly elections, West Bengal’s government failed to properly investigate violence complaints, a five-judge bench of the Calcutta high court headed by acting chief justice Rajesh Bindal said.
While hearing public interest litigations relating to post-poll violence, the bench said on July 22: “The proceedings have become adversarial because the state has failed to properly investigate.”
An arrest was made at a relative’s house in Chandannagar, Hoogly district, where Sanjay Dey, 26, and Avijit Dey, 25, live, said Murlidhar Sharma, a joint commissioner of the Kolkata police’s crime branch.
“With this, seven of the eight people named in the first information report (FIR) have been arrested,” said Sharma.
Mehr als 30 of its supporters have been killed and hundreds attacked, according to the state’s main opposition party, the BJP. The TMC won 213 of the 77 seats won by the BJP in the state’s assembly elections earlier this year. In addition, many women were allegedly raped and assaulted.
The murder of Abhijit Sarkar was highlighted in the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) report, which was presented to the Calcutta high court on July 13. The NHRC had been asked by the five-judge bench to investigate the allegations of post-election violence.
BJP leader and advocate Priyanka Tibrewal, who is representing many of the alleged victims of the violence, filed an affidavit requesting a DNA test to identify Sarkar’s body, which was found in a city morgue. The court ordered that the Central Forensic Science Laboratory conduct a DNA test.
The bench had previously ordered that the body be autopsied at the army’s Command Hospital in Kolkata. Biswajit Sarkar, the victim’s brother, is one of the petitioners who asked the Supreme Court in May to form a special investigation team to look into allegations of violence by TMC workers.
On July 13, Tibrewal testified in court that members of Sarkar’s family were unable to identify the body prior to the autopsy at Command Hospital. The court ordered that DNA samples from the body be matched to the victim’s brother’s DNA.
Advocate general Kishor Dutta, who represented the state, accused Sarkar’s family of refusing to cooperate with the police. Several attempts to recore were made, he said.
Between May 2 and June 20, at least 1,934 police complaints were filed, according to the NHRC report. There were 29 murder charges, 12 rape and sexual assault complaints, and 940 complaints of loot and arson. According to the report, only about 3% of the 9,304 people named as suspects are currently incarcerated.
“The situation in the state of West Bengal is a manifestation of the law of ruler, instead of rule of law…This was retributive violence by supporters of the ruling party against supporters of the main opposition party,” the report said.
The government has until July 26 to file its response to the NHRC report, according to the court. On July 28, the case will be heard again.
