NEW DELHI/KOLKATA : A ‘fact-finding’ team of the BJP reported to party national president JP Nadda on Wednesday that the recent carnage in Birbhum district of West Bengal was the “outcome of state-sponsored extortion, cut-money, and the rivalry among its illicit beneficiaries”.
The five-member team, including four former IPS officers-turned-BJP MPs, stated that under the Trinamool Congress leadership, “mafia is ruling West Bengal in connivance with police and political leadership. The law and order machinery has totally collapsed”.
Sharing the main findings of the report, the BJP alleged that West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee decided to visit the spot only after the BJP’s ‘fact-finding’ team had reached Kolkata. Because of “the forced -visit of CM”, the team’s journey was “thwarted by TMC goons bent upon assaulting the members”. “Not a single officer or constable of West Bengal Police was visible. Nobody came to the rescue of the team when the members were attacked. Our efforts to contact the DGP and other officers failed,” the report said.
The report further said the local residents fled from homes fearing threat to their lives and property. “In view of this, it is recommended that the NHRC and the national commissions for women and child rights should visit the village and instill confidence in the residents,” the report said.
The report also recommended that All India Service Officers serving in West Bengal should be made to realise their constitutional obligations and the Centre should strongly caution them.
Misuse of power: Mamata
Expressing serious reservations over the BJP delegation’s report, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said it interfered with the ongoing probe by the CBI and alleged that the carnage was a conspiracy hatched by the saffron camp. “I condemn this type of attitude. Investigation must be free and fair. We are cooperating from the first day of the probe. At this stage of the probe, interference of the ruling party in the Centre means absolute misuse and abuse of power,” she said.
‘Agitations if CBI brings politics into probe’
Mamata Banerjee threatened mass agitations by the TMC if the CBI, at the instance of the BJP, makes an effort to bring politics in its investigation. “The massacre was hatched by the BJP. They want our Birbhum district president to get arrested,” the West Bengal CM said.