West Bengal Post Poll Violence: Supreme Court Adjourns Plea For SIT Probe On Killings Of 2 BJP Workers To June 18

The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned to June 18th, the plea filed seeking CBI/SIT probe into the killings of two BJP activists allegedly at the instance of Trinamool Congress leaders during the post-poll violence.A division Bench of Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice MR Shah decided to hear the matter on June 18th, after a request regarding the same was made by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.The Court was hearing a writ petition filed by Biswajit Sarkar, brother of deceased BJP member Avijit Sarkar who was allegedly killed by TMC members during the post-poll violence in West Bengal.A vacation bench of Justices Vineet Saran and BR Gavai had on May 25th directed the West Bengal Government to file a counter-affidavit in the case, after being informed by the State's Counsel that FIRs have been registered by the state police in respect of both the killings, and three persons have been arrested each in both the cases based on the allegations of the complainants.The Bench had issued notice in the case on May 25th and on an oral request made on behalf of the petitioners, it had also impleaded National Human Rights Commission, National Commission for Women, National Commission for SC/ST and National Commission for Protection of Child Rights as additional respondents in the plea.The plea by Biswajit Sarkar sought the constitution of a Special Investigation Team(SIT) to investigate under the monitoring of the court the alleged murder of his brother and BJP booth worker Haran Adhikari allegedly at the behest of Trinamool Congress members. The widow of Haran Adhikari is the second petitioner in the case.The plea further sought directions for an investigation into the acts of widespread violence which took place in West Bengal after the Trinamool Congress was elected to power for the second consecutive term on May 2.Application for Impleadment: Two women, a 17 year old minor and a 64 year old woman, allegedly raped by TMC supporters/workers during post-poll violence have moved an application seeking to be impleaded in the present case ( Biswajit Sarkar vs Union of India and ors)In the application filed by a 17 year old minor girl from a scheduled caste community allegedly gang raped by TMC supporters on May 9th, it's been stated that the girl was stopped by a group of 4 men saying " our party has won the elections, now lets teach her a lesson" and was assaulted and raped.Another application filed by the 60 year old woman, who was allegedly raped by supporters/workers of the ruling political party, Trinamool Congress in front of her 6 year old grandson, called it a glaring living example of the nature of post poll violence unleashed by supporters of the ruling political party against those who opposed or were perceived to oppose the interest of Trinamool Congress during Assembly Elections.

West Bengal Post Poll Violence: Supreme Court Adjourns Plea For SIT Probe On Killings Of 2 BJP Workers To June 18

Srishti Ojha

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