Kolkata, April 18 A special court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday granted “default bail” to 15 of the 35 accused in connection with the violence that erupted at Beldanga in West Bengal’s minority-dominated Murshidabad district earlier this year.
The default bail was granted to these 15 accused persons after the investigating agency failed to submit a charge sheet against them within 90 days from the day of their arrest. However, the court had imposed certain conditions for granting the default bail.
To recall, violence and riot-like situations surfaced at Beldanga earlier this year over the death of a migrant worker from the region in neighbouring Jharkhand. The tension flared up after the body of the migrant worker reached Beldanga from Jharkhand.
The local protesters alleged that the migrant worker was lynched in Jharkhand because of religious and linguistic reasons. The protests started with the blockade of railways and roads at Beldanga.
When the police tried to lift the blockade, the protesters set up an ambush with the security personnel. Some journalists were also attacked by the protesters, some of whom got severely injured.
Later, the Jharkhand Police issued a statement, citing the postmortem report that termed the migrant worker’s death a case of suicide.
Cricketer-turned-politician and the local Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member, Yusuf Pathan, faced scathing criticism for not being present in the area or even in the state when the entire place was burning.
Later, the leader of the opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, filed a petition at the Calcutta High Court demanding deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) at Beldanga and also handing over the investigation in the matter to the NIA.
The matter went to the Supreme Court, which also agreed with the Calcutta High Court that if the Union Home Minister thought it necessary, it might ask the NIA to start the investigation into the matter.
Finally, the NIA started the investigation into the matter.
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