POST-POLL VIOLENCE: NHRC PANEL RECEIVES REPRESENTATIONS FROM COMPLAINANTS IN BENGAL

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC ) has formed a seven-member committee to look into the post-poll violence in West Bengal. This decision of the NHRC is in compliance with the High Court order on 18 June. The committee has started receiving representations from complainants from Sunday, as per an official.

The members of the committee met the victims/complainants from 4 pm on Sunday and will meet from 10 am on Monday at the Staff Officer Mess of the CRPF at Salt Lake, the official said.

According to the official, the panel members and several other teams of the National Human Rights Commission “have been touring various places of West Bengal and inquiring into the veracity of these allegations.”

On 18 June, the HC had ordered the NHRC to constitute a committee and visit those places where post-poll violence complaints were registered, with the report to be filed by 30 June.

Following this, on 21 June, the West Bengal government filed an application seeking recall of the order. The government had claimed that it was not given adequate opportunity to place all facts on record, including the steps it took to address the violence.

The HC, however, dismissed the plea, stating that it had to involve the NHRC because there were allegations that the police was not acting on complaints. The five-judge bench, headed by acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal, observed that the June 18 order was passed after the state failed to inspire the court’s confidence.

The NHRC team is looking into the aspects of how many complaints have been lodged, what are the steps being taken by the local administration, and how many people were allegedly forced to flee their homes.

Retired Justice Girish Gupta, chairman of West Bengal Human Rights Commission (WBHRC) questioned the efficiency of NHRC before setting foot in the state. Citing an example, Gupta claimed that the efficiency of the WBHRC is more than that.

He gave the details of the incident. West Tripura District Magistrate Shailesh Kumar Yadav, who forcibly stopped two wedding ceremonies being held in violation of the night curfew in place to check the spread of Covid-19, is accused of gross misconduct during the raids on 26 April. It includes allegedly slapping a priest, shoving one of the grooms and arresting everyone present at the weddings. Gupta told us that he informed about this incident in a letter to the NHRC but to no avail. He said, “I was later told that the matter had been reported to the Chief Secretary. I passed the judicial order but my name was not mentioned.” Gupta questioned the efficiency of the NHRC, citing the example of his work.

-With PTI inputs