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The Calcutta High Court-appointed committee found that the local police were inactive and absent during the Murshidabad violence. It also suggests the attack was pre-planned.
Murshidabad: Security personnel guard during a visit by Special Investigation Team members and forensic experts (Photo: PTI)
The local police in West Bengal’s violence-hit Murshidabad were “inactive and absent” during the incidents in Dhuliyan town on April 11, a report by a committee set up by the Calcutta High Court stated.
It also mentioned that a local councillor directed the attacks at the town, and that a mall was also looted.
The three-member committee was set up on April 17 for the identification and rehabilitation of people displaced by the violence during the protests over the Waqf (Amendment) Act in the district.
The panel, comprising Joginder Singh, Registrar, (Law), National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Satya Arnab Ghosal, member secretary, West Bengal Legal Services Authority (WBLSA), and Saugata Chakraborty, Registrar, WBJS, submitted the report to the high court last week.
This came after the panel visited the affected areas and spoke to the victims as directed by the division bench hearing the matter.
EARLIER REPORT BY BENGAL GOVERNMENT
Another report earlier submitted by the West Bengal government to the division bench hearing the petitions related to the Murshidabad violence detailed widespread incidents of violence between April 8 and April 12 by mobs in connection with protests over the Waqf Act.
It stated that following intervention by the police and civil administration, the situation in Suti, Dhuliyan, Samserganj and Jangipur was under control.
The report said that agitational programmes over the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 started on April 4 in all police station areas of Jangipur police district in Murshidabad district.
It stated that the protests turned violent on April 8.
The report said that two persons – Haragobinda Das and his son Chandan Das – were killed by a mob on April 12 at Jafrabad under the Samserganj police station.
It stated that central forces were deployed in Samserganj on April 11 as the situation went out of control, and thereafter more CAPF were deployed on orders of the high court on April 12.
(With PTI inputs)
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