Bengal panchayat polls: Calcutta HC seeks report on administrative failure in protecting candidates

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Friday sought a report from the West Bengal government on alleged administrative failure to give proper protection to the candidates while filing nomination for the forthcoming state panchayat elections despite a definite court order on this count.

On Friday, senior advocate of the court and the CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya informed the single-judge bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha that while the police was escorting a group of candidates for filing their nominations, one was shot dead in front of the police.

"One of the assassins could not escape and he was informed that he was hired by the Trinamool Congress legislator from Canning (East) Saokat Molla at Rs 5,000. How could such a planned attack happen in front of police despite a clear instruction from the court to ensure necessary protection for all candidates?" Bhattacharya questioned.

Thereafter, Justice Mantha observed that the court is quite worried about the lives of common people. "However, no concrete step to ensure that is visible. What is this happening? I thought that after all these an official FIR would have been registered by police at Bhangar Police Station. But even that did not happen. It is unimaginable. The state police had been unable to ensure protection even after a clear court order on this count,' Justice Mantha observed.

Thereafter, he directed the state government to submit a report to his court explaining why the candidates were unable to file nominations despite clear orders from the court and why action should not be taken against those police personnel who failed on this count.