After SC direction, Election Commission orders NIA probe into Malda violence incident
Election Commission sources say the NIA team will reach West Bengal on Friday to begin the probe into the incident, whose suo moto cognisance had been taken by the Supreme Court also
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Thursday evening handed over the investigation of the Malda incident in poll-bound West Bengal, where judicial officers were reportedly gheraoed by several locals, mostly those whose names apparently had been removed from electoral rolls, to the NIA.
Election Commission sources said the NIA team will reach West Bengal on Friday to begin the probe into the incident, whose suo moto cognisance had been taken by the Supreme Court also, which on Thursday directed the poll body to get the matter investigated by either CBI or NIA.
Subsequently in a letter to the DG of NIA, the poll body said that as per the directions of the top court, “the necessary inquiry/investigation into the matter be conducted and a preliminary inquiry report be submitted directly to the court”.
The decision by the Election Commission came after the Supreme Court earlier on Thursday said the gheraoing of seven judicial officers without food or water for more than nine hours at a government office in West Bengal’s Malda district reportedly after several voters were struck off the electoral roll in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) was not only a “brazen attempt” to browbeat the officers but amounted to a challenge to the authority of the top court.
Noting that three of the judicial officers were women, the court said the incident exposed the “complete failure of the civil and police administration in the state of West Bengal”.
Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, heading a three-judge Bench, asked what the political leaders were doing during all those hours of captivity – could they not have gone to the spot and calmed down the situation.
The court directed the Election Commission to assign the Central Bureau of Investigation or National Investigation Agency with the task to probe the incident.
Expressing shock at the incident, the apex court pointed out that the judicial officers were pelted with stones as they were finally rescued and led out by the police after being detained from 3.30 pm on April 1 till well past midnight.
It directed the Commission to requisition Central forces to protect the life, liberty and families of the judicial officers involved in West Bengal SIR.
