The Division Bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury had in its order dated May 15 said that Court has taken the report of the fact finding committee and Special Investigation Team (SIT) on record. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
A three -member fact finding committee set up by Calcutta High Court in its report on the communal violence at Murshidabad has highlighted the presence of local Trinamool Congress councillor and MLA at the site of violence. The report which is based on the testimony of victims also pointed out that the West Bengal Police did not respond to calls from the locals during the violence.
The three -member committee was set up by Division Bench of Justice Soumen Sen ad Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury comprised Joginder Singh, Registrar (Law), National Human Rights Commission, Satya Arnab Ghosal, Member Secretary, West Bengal Legal Services Authority and Saugata Chakraborty, Registrar, West Bengal Judicial Service. The team visited the violence affected areas and spoke to victims. The report dated April 27, 2025 was submitted before the Bench earlier this week.
One testimony of the victim revealed that the “residents of Samserganj, Hizaltala, Shiulitala, Digri, they came masking up their faces”. “Local Councilor (Councillor) namely Mehoob Alam came with the miscreants on 11th April, 2025. MLA is also present on Friday, he saw the vandalism and went away. But the violence continued on 12th April, 2025, Saturday. A man named Amirul Islam came back to the village and saw which houses were not attacked and then the miscreants came and set fire to those house (s),” the fact finding committee report said.
The members of the committee visited Betbona and Samserganj areas of Murshidabad, where communal violence had erupted on April 11 and April 12. The violence claimed three lives and hundreds were left homeless. Since the violence the West Bengal police has registered multiple FIRs and over 300 people have been arrested.
The contents of the reports have been accessed by The Hindu. Some portions of the report were circulated on social media by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Amit Malviya. BJP Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi held a press conference in Delhi accusing the Trinamool of orchestrating riots. The Trinamool Congress leadership described it as a propaganda. “BJP’s political propaganda on the Murshidabad incident is provocative and politically-motivated,” Trinamool leader Kunal Ghosh said.
The report claims that as many as “113 houses were affected badly, in the village of Betbona the said occurrences”. One the role of the police, the committee quotes a victim saying, “The West Bengal Police did not respond. The villager of Betbona called at 4 p.m. on Friday and 4p.m on Saturday but police did not pick up the call”.
The Division Bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury had in its order dated May 15 said that Court has taken the report of the fact finding committee and Special Investigation Team (SIT) on record.
“Presently for the sake of confidentiality, we are not directing supply of the report of the SIT and the report by the Committee formed in terms of the order dated 17th April, 2025. These two reports shall be retained in a sealed envelope and shall be placed on the adjourned date,” the Bench had noted.
Published – May 21, 2025 07:41 am IST