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Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court has ordered an inquiry into the Ram Navami violence in West Bengal by the central agency NIA. Last month, there was violence in West Bengal’s Howrah during Ram Navami celebrations. Several vehicles were set on fire and stones were pelted during clashes between the two groups in the district. Shops were also ransacked.
Several cars, including some police vehicles, were damaged during the violence. After this, the security personnel had to fire tear gas shells to disperse the crowd. The Bengal Police arrested 116 people in connection with these incidents and the state government handed over the investigation to the CID. The Calcutta High Court had asked the Mamata Banerjee government of West Bengal before Hanuman Jayanti to deploy central forces to maintain peace in the state.
The High Court has directed the Bengal Police to hand over all the documents related to the investigation of this violence to the NIA. BJP MLA and Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Legislative Assembly Suvendu Adhikari had filed a petition in the Calcutta High Court demanding an NIA probe into the Ram Navami violence in the state.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in a statement after the violence, said that a route was chosen for the Ram Navami procession to “specifically target and attack a community” for which permission was not sought. Bengal BJP president Sukant Majumdar told news agency media, ‘TMC is lying because it was not the wrong way. It was allowed up to Howrah Maidan and that was the only way to go there.’
Both the Trinamool Congress and the BJP shared the videos as evidence, blaming each other for the violence. Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee had earlier alleged that the BJP had approached the High Court demanding a probe by the central agency NIA, as they wanted to avoid probes in the state to ‘avoid action’. He said, ‘They know that if there is an investigation here, they will be caught.’
