Murder of father and son in Murshidabad violence: Charge sheet filed, 13 named as accused

Kolkata, June 6 The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the West Bengal Police probing the murder of Hargobindo Das and Chandan Das, the father and the son killed in the Murshidabad violence in April this year, has filed the charge sheet in the matter on Friday.

A total of 13 people have been named as accused in the killings of the father and son in April this year at Samserganj in Murshidabad district when communal violence and riot-like situation broke out there after protests against the Waqf (Amendment) Act turned violent there.

The charge sheet has been filed exactly on the 56th day after the killing of the father and the son took place. Besides 13 named as accused in the case, the SIT has named 50 individuals as witnesses in the matter in the 900-page charge sheet.

The 13 named as accused in the charge sheet include those 11 individuals who had already been arrested by the police in this connection.

However, sources aware of the content of the charge sheet said that in the document the SIT has started that the killings of the father and the son were not pre-panned in the true sense of it. According to it, the father and the son were among those who tried to prevent and resist the violence, vandalism, and arson by the rioters and they were killed in the retaliation process.

Last month, a three-member committee of the Calcutta High Court probing the communal violence in Murshidabad submitted its report indicating total police negligence and indifference to bring the situation under control before the deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) there.

In the report, the committee also named Trinamool Congress MLA, a party councillor, and some other ruling party leaders as masterminds behind the violence.

The violence broke out in pockets of Murshidabad like Dhulian, Suti, and Samserganj on April 8 this year, and finally, CAPF was deployed there on the night of April 12 following an order on the same evening by Calcutta High Court’s special division bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury, which was specially constituted to hear the matters related to Murshidabad violence.

While ordering CAPF deployment on April 12 evening, the special division observed that the measures taken by the West Bengal government to control communal unrest in Murshidabad over protests against the newly promulgated Waqf (Amendment) Act turning violent were inadequate.

The special division bench also observed that had the CAPF deployment been earlier, the situation would not have been so “grave” and “volatile”.

--IANS

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