Bengal Panchayat Polls: HC Orders CBI Probe Into Violence, Tampering Of Election Documents

The CBI has been asked to submit its report on July 7. 

Security personnel after the recent violence during nominations for Panchayat elections, in South 24 Parganas district

Source : PTI

The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday ordered CBI probe into incidents of violence that erupted over filing of nominations for West Bengal panchayat polls. Justice Amrita Sinha has ordered the CBI to submit the probe report by July 7, a day before the voting for the panchayat elections.

The case came up for hearing after the Left Front approached the Calcutta High Court, alleging that the names of their candidates did not feature on the list uploaded to the State Election Commission's website. The court ordered the SEC to include the names of the candidates on the list. Justice Sinha also slammed the clashes before the polls and said that the widespread violence in the run up to the elections should not be happening.

The high court also heard allegations relating to document tampering that enabled two candidates in two Uluberia blocks to bypass the scrutiny process. The BDO of the area, however, refused to entertain a complaint in this regard. Since the BDO is a state government employee, the CBI has been asked to investigate the matter. "It would not be appropriate to entrust the burden of this inquiry to the state," the court said.

Bengal, which is no stranger to poll-related violence, has been witnessing a series of clashes in various districts. Since the SEC is yet to identify "sensitive areas", a Calcutta High Court bench of Chief Justice Sivagnaman and Justice Uday Kumar last week ordered it to requisition central forces to maintain peace till the polls are over. So far, eight people have been killed in the last 15 days, including a CPI(M) worker on Wednesday.

Opposition parties in Bengal have alleged that their candidates and supporters faced violence and intimidation by Trinamool Congress activists, while the ruling party has blamed the opposition for clashes at different places in the state during nomination filing and withdrawal of candidature period, which ended on Tuesday. Elections will be held for nearly 75,000 seats in the three-tier Panchayati Raj system on July 8.