Kolkata, April 1 The Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, on Tuesday approached a single judge bench of the Calcutta High Court seeking permission to visit Mothabari in the Malda district, which had been recently hit by communal tension.
A section of the Hindu population in the area was allegedly attacked by a group of people from another community.
In his petition, Adhikari pleaded that he wished to reach Mothabari along with just one more fellow party legislator and one of his personal bodyguards. The petition has been admitted by the single judge bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh and the matter is expected to come up for hearing during the current week.
Earlier, on Sunday, the state BJP president in West Bengal and the Union Minister of State, Sukanta Majumdar, tried to reach Mothabari. However, he was stopped far away from the troubled zones.
The LoP now apprehends that he might face the same police resistance unless there is a specific direction from the court in the matter and, hence had approached Justice Ghosh’s bench on Thursday.
In his petition, Adhikari had also claimed that he would just go to the spot, meet the victim families, and not resort to any action like conducting rallies there which might spark fresh tension.
According to the latest statistics provided by the state police, a total of 61 people have been arrested in connection with the communal tension at Mothabari, and a total of 61 cases have been filed. Although the state police had claimed that the situation at Mothabari was currently under control, the LoP had refuted those claims.
According to him, had the situation been under control, the state police would not have prevented the opposition leaders and the media persons from entering the troubled spot.
Adhikari had also written to Governor C.V. Ananda Bose requesting the latter to direct the state government to deploy Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) at Mothabari.
The Malda district magistrate and district police superintendent are scheduled to submit a detailed report on how the communal tension ignited at Mothabari to Calcutta High Court on April 3.
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