West Bengal government is in denial about post-poll violence, says Calcutta High Court

The West Bengal government is in denial about the violence that took place in the state in May after the declaration of Assembly election results, the Calcutta High Court said on Friday, according to Live Law.

The court has been hearing petitions seeking an independent inquiry into the violence. The Bharatiya Janata Party and the ruling Trinamool Congress have blamed each other for the deaths of multiple party workers. Various news reports put the toll between 11 and 14, but the police did not confirm the numbers.

After studying a report submitted by a seven-member panel of the National Human Rights Commission, the court noted that killings and sexual assaults happened in the state in May.

“From a perusal of the report prima facie stand taken by the petitioners is established that there had been post poll violence and the state was found on a wrong foot, where throughout it was on a denial mode,” a five-judge bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justices IP Mukerji, Harish Tandon, Soumen Sen and Subrata Talukdar said, according to Live Law.

The bench said that the violence had also forced people to leave their homes. It pulled up the state government for not assuring people that they could return safely.

The Calcutta High Court criticised…

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