Calcutta HC directs West Bengal Police to form SIT to probe Mominpur violence.

The Centre can decide within two weeks if a NIA probe is needed, the court observed.

Calcutta HC orders SIT probe into Mominpur violence and directs Kolkata Police Commissioner to take measures to maintain peace in the area.

Sumita Saha | HENB | Kolkata | Oct 13, 2022:: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday directed the Kolkata Police Commissioner to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the causes behind the Mominpur violence and take measures to maintain peace in the area.

A vacation bench, comprising Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Apurba Sinha Ray, said the SIT should be tasked to identify the miscreants and reinstate trust in the people. It said the SIT shall conduct “the investigation in an effective and efficient manner and take all necessary steps for the preservation and analysis of electronic evidence including video footages of the incident. They shall take prompt measures for the apprehension of the miscreants who are responsible for the commission of the offences”.

The state government had informed the court that it has already sent a report to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. The court observed that the Centre can decide the future course of investigation on this issue.

The court also directed the Kolkata Police Commissioner to take measures so that no further violence takes place. The HC made it clear that central force deployment in the area is not necessary now but observed that no such incident should recur. It wanted police pickets to be placed, along with CCTVs.

The court directed the state government to compensate the victims, repatriate the persons displaced due to violence and submit its reports before the court in two weeks after vacation.

The court has refrained from making any observation on the NIA probe as the state has submitted a report to Centre in compliance with the NIA Act, 2008. The Centre can decide within two weeks if a NIA probe is needed, the court observed.

The tensions flared up in Mominpur on Sunday after Islamic flags put up in the Hindu area for the Milad-un-Nabi festival were allegedly opposed, which soon turned violent with the vandalization of several vehicles and shops belonging to the Hindus.

Reports also said a mob also surrounded the Ekbalpore police station in protest when some police personnel have been reportedly injured. Security has been tightened in the area since then.

Meanwhile, Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyel said, “We have restored normalcy. We have arrested 45 persons and five cases have been registered. People have opened shops in the area. We have pickets all over the area and there is nothing to panic.”

The West Bengal Police on Monday imposed section 144 in the Ekbalpur area of the state for two days.

The two-day curfew (from October 10 to October 12), has been imposed amid the ongoing law and order
situation in the region due to the violence that erupted in Mominpur and the ransacking of Ekbalpur police station on Sunday evening.

The Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Governor La Ganesan demanding an urgent deployment of central forces in the region.

“The Hindu community has come under attack in Khidirpore Mominpur area of Kolkata on the eve of Lakshmi Puja,” Adhikari, also the leader of the opposition, said in the letter.

He said many shops and bikes belonging to Hindus were vandalised by hooligans and anti-social elements in the violence.

“The onslaught has similarities to the Panchla violence which happened in June in the Uluberia area of Howrah district. At that time, the violence spread across West Bengal, especially in Nadia and Murshidabad districts,” Adhikari wrote.

Adhikari obviously indicated the upsurge of the Jihadi power in West Bengal under which the peaceful Hindu people in Bengal have been victimized in a regular fashion under the Trinamool regime in the state.

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__Inputs from ANI & GNT.