KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress on Saturday said a fact finding team of the party will visit Prayagraj, scene of the killing of five members of a family. "A five-member fact finding team will visit Prayagraj (Uttar Pradesh) tomorrow (Sunday) where five members of a family were brutally murdered and later their house was set on fire," a statement by Trinamool Congress stated.
The TMC delegation to Prayagraj comprises Dola Sen, Mamata Bala Thakur, Saket Gokhale, Uma Soren and Lalitesh Tripathi. The TMC had sent a fact-finding team to Jahangirpuri area in Delhi, which was rocked by communal violence recently.
Its decision to send the fact-finding team to Jahangirpuri and Prayagraj comes days after BJP sent similar teams to Bogtui in Birbhum district where nine people were burnt alive, and to Hanshkhali in Nadia district where a minor girl died after she was allegedly gang-raped.
Earlier in the day, senior TMC leader Chandrima Bhattacharya wondered at a press conference why Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah are silent over the "gruesome murder" in Prayagraj.
"This is the benefit of double engine government (same party in power at Centre and State)" she slammed. Alleging that there is lawlessness and "goondaraj" in Uttar Pradesh under BJP, Bhattacharya, who is a minister in the Mamata Banerjee cabinet, said everyone is unsafe there.
The guilty is not arrested and fact finding teams of other parties are stopped from going to the site under BJP rule. "But we don't stop anyone from going to any place they want in our state (Bengal). Here lies the difference,' she said and ridiculed BJP for demanding imposition of President's Rule after the Bogtui violence.
"We have seen how leaders of some parties visited one incident site in West Bengal and demanded imposition of Article 356. We have seen the BJP top leadership losing no time in sending fact finding teams. Why is no fact finding team seen in Prayagraj now?" Bhattacharya said according to the recent records of NCRB, NHRC and global bodies Uttar Pradesh tops the list in the number of attacks on women and children.
"Earlier this month four members of a family were found murdered in Nawabganj area of UP. One after another violent incidents are taking place in UP where lawlessness prevails. But our BJP leaders haven't found time to condemn these things. What will the prime minister and union home minister say about these incidents in UP?" she said.
The TMC leader said in West Bengal the Mamata Banerjee government takes immediate action after any violent incident, investigates and extends all help to the affected.
Echoing Bhattacharya, another senior TMC leader Shashi Panja tweeted "Lawlessness in Uttar Pradesh is a growing problem. Clearly, it remains unchecked by the @BJP4UP government. From women to children, everyone is unsafe under Yogi's watch! #DoubleEngineDisaster."
BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said the Yogi Adityanath government is already working to put the culprits behind bars. "No complicity of the BJP members or supporters has been found in the incident, unlike in Bogtui or earlier incidents in Bengal where TMC was the main accused. And if the TMC wants to send factfinding teams to Prayagraj who is preventing them? They are such a big all India party," he mocked.
Five members of a family, including a two-year-old girl child were killed at Khevrajpur village in Prayagraj district on Friday night. Police found the male head of the house, his wife, daughter, daughter-in-law, and grand daughter dead on early Saturday morning.
While Samajwadi Party attacked the BJP government saying Uttar Pradesh is "immersed in crime", BSP chief Mayawati demanded a thorough probe into the incident.