A six-member fact-finding team, comprising a few “independent observers” and headed by a retired high court judge, is on a two-day visit to several places in Birbhum district, including Bogtui where 10 people were killed in a carnage March last year, to look into incidents of human rights violation and corruption.
The two-day trip of the team, which has apparently been stitched together by the BJP’s central leadership to voice its “independent opinion” on Bengal politics, started on Saturday. Sources in the BJP said the extensive visit by the fact-finding team, which comprises retired IPS officers and a journalist among others, was part of the party’s strategy to exploit the void created in Birbhum’s political domain by the absence of Trinamul’s Birbhum president Anubrata Mondal, in jail since August last year in connection with the multi-crore cattle smuggling scam.
“The same team earlier visited the state for a report on teacher recruitment scam. This time it is visiting Birbhum, a district known to be a Trinamul bastion since 2011. The team will also meet the district magistrate and police chief to record their statements in reply to the inputs from the ground. Though the team is not directly linked to the party, it will help us politically,” said a senior BJP leader in Calcutta.
According to BJP leaders, more areas of the state would be toured to record incidents of human rights violations in the run-up to panchayat polls. “This panel and similar others will visit Bengal every month. The teams will send their reports to several central agencies, including the Union home ministry. They will collect written complaints from residents and may move the Supreme Court or high court against the state government,” the BJP leader added.
BJP leaders said these exercises would help them politically for next year’s Lok Sabha election too. The fact-finding team, headed by retired Justice Narsimha Reddy of Patna High Court, reached Suri District Central Cooperative Bank on Saturday to find out about people whose accounts had been fraudulently used allegedly to siphon money linked to the cattle-smuggling case. Though the bank was closed, the team members met a few account holders to record their complaints.
Later they went to Bogtui and met Mihilal Sheikh, whose wife and young daughter was among the 10 people burnt alive in the March 21 carnage. Later, they visited the violence-hit Darbarpur village in Labhpur and spoke to several persons who lost their family members in attacks by goons over the last few years.
Over the past few years, Darbarpur has been the epicentre of clashes between warring Trinamul groups. On Sunday, the team will visit at least four villages in Birbhum that recently witnessed political violence and deaths in crude bomb blasts. “The administrative officers or police can avoid political leaders but can’t avoid a panel headed by a retired judge,” said a BJP leader.
Trinamul leaders said such pressure tactics did not work in the 2021 Assembly polls and would not work in the forthcoming polls too. “This is a new BJP strategy to harass Trinamul. It is trying to exploit the absence of Anubrata Mondal. Instead of all this, the BJP should focus on strengthening its organisation,” said a Trinamul Birbhum leader.
