Anshika Tiwari-
Calcutta High Court on Friday issued a contempt notice to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, South Calcutta. It was alleged that the DCP, Rashid Munir Khan failed to protect the National Human Rights Commission team which was investigating the matter of after polls violence in Bengal. Consequently, the present notice was served to him and he was asked to show cause why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him.
The court said: “Let a notice be issued to Rashid Munir Khan, Deputy Commissioner of Police, South Suburban Division, Kolkata to show cause as to why proceedings for contempt be not initiated against him for violation of the order passed by this court on June 18, 2021.”
Atif Rasheed, the vice-chairman of the National Commission for Minorities and a member of the NHRC panel, reported incidents of them being attacked and chased by people on their investigative visit to Jadavpur on the 29th June.
The NHRC team informed the court in their interim report that altough they apprised the District Magistrate and the local police of their visit, no police protection was offered to them.
A five-judge Bench of the court headed by ACJ Rajesh Bindal said that the incident was grossly violative of the court’s order passed on June 18. On 18th June, the court had asked all the concerned authorities to provide logistical support to the panel so as to avert any possible obstruction to their investigation.
The court turned down the request of Advocate General Kishore Dutta who had urged the court to provide a copy of the committee’s report. The matter is still under investigation, the court remarked.
“Before passing any final order, due opportunity shall be granted to all the concerned parties to place their cases before the court, in view of final report to be submitted by the Committee,”.
The matter will next be heard on 13th July.
The sequence of events was triggered when the state of West Bengal witnessed incidents of violence and uproar following Assembly election results on May 2. The BJP and the ruling Trinamool Congress blamed each other for the deaths of multiple party workers. The number of deaths was not confirmed by the police.