A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a court-monitored Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the alleged killings of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) members in West Bengal and compensation of Rs 50 lakh to their families.
The application filed by BJP spokesperson and senior lawyer Gaurav Bhatia said that issues pertain to incidents of alleged political murders of members of BJP namely Debendra Nath Roy, Sukhendu Pramk, Saikat Bhawal, Ulen Roy, Madan Ghorai, Msh Shukla, Ganesh Roy, Bijoy Sil and Swadhin Roy in West Bengal.
The fresh application was filed in an already pending matter where Bhatia had sought a CBI probe into the death of three BJP workers -- Shaktipada Sarkar, Trilochan Mahato and Dulal Kumar -- in 2018.
It claimed that in all of the incidents, complicity of the workers of the ruling party of West Bengal namely All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) is evident and thus requires an impartial investigation by a credible agency.
The application sought a direction to transfer the investigation of cases relating to the alleged killing of BJP leaders in West Bengal be transferred to the CBI.
It sought direction that the State of West Bengal be directed "to furnish a status report pertaining to the stage of investigation/status of arrests made/details of the accused persons that have been enlarged on bail/status of charge sheet/stage of trial with respect to the criminal incident enumerated in the present application."
It further sought direction that the State of West Bengal to grant monetary compensation of Rs 50 lakhs to the family members of the deceased and grant adequate police protection to their family members alleging imminent threat to their lives.
"Seven brutal political murders and two deaths caused due to police brutality and atrocity, which took place in State of West Bengal in the year 2020 alone," plea added.
The petition alleged that there is complicity of state administration and police authorities in the State of West Bengal with those who commit such crimes and the criminals are protected by the State Government, hence urged for a fair and impartial investigation of these crimes, so that the perpetrators of the crime can be booked and punished strictly in accordance with law.
"It has been settled by this Court in catena of judgements that if there is any deficiency in investigation or prosecution is visible or can be perceived by lifting the veil which try to hide the realities or covering the obvious deficiency, Courts have to deal with the same with an iron hand appropriately within the framework of law," it said.
The petition said BJP has claimed that more than 120 of its workers and leaders have been murdered in West Bengal in recent years. On December 12, 2020, in an attack on BJP party workers, in Halisahar six workers were left injured and one, Saikat Bhowal, had succumbed to his injuries, it added.
"This attack comes days after BJP President JP Nadda's convoy was attacked by TMC-flag bearing goons when it was on its way to the Diamond Harbour area in West Bengal and left Kailash Vijayvvargiya, Mukul Roy, Sambit Patra, and others seriously injured," the plea said while stating about the recent attack in BJP leaders in the state.
( With inputs from ANI )
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