What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
The Ram Navami violence in West Bengal will now be probed by the NIA.
New Delhi: The Calcutta High Court has ordered the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to investigate the communal violence that erupted during the Ram Navami celebrations in Shibpur of Howrah district of West Bengal last month.
Hearing a petition filed by Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, the order to transfer the probe to the anti-terror investigation agency was passed by a bench led by acting chief justice TS Sivagnanam on Thursday.
The bench has ordered the West Bengal Police to hand over the case papers to the NIA, which will have to submit the probe report within two weeks.
The state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has welcomed the decision, stating that the violence was pre-planned and instigated with the support of the ruling Trinamool Congress government. The party has also announced plans to raise the issue of the violence in parliament.
“It was triggered by the inflammatory speech of CM Mamata Banerjee,” tweeted Adhikari after the court order.
However, the ruling party has accused the BJP of planning for communal disharmony and hooliganism and utilizing the NIA purposefully to disturb the opposition-ruled states. TMC Rajya Sabha MP Santanu Sen said that similar incidents of violence have taken place in BJP-ruled states, but no NIA probe has been initiated in those cases.
“Even though there are more severe incidents of violence occurring in states ruled by the BJP, such as Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and other double engine states, the NIA is not investigating those cases. Once again, it has been proved that the central agency is utilized purposefully to disturb the opposition ruled states,” said Sen told The New Indian.
The violence during the Ram Navami procession on March 30 resulted in burning of vehicles, chaos, and injuries to people. Another incident of arson and violence erupted during another Ram Navami shobhayatra organized by the BJP in Hoogly a few days later.
