West Bengal violence: The streak of violent incidents continues in West Bengal ahead of Panchayat election in the state. In fresh round of violence, a shop and a house were vandalised and torched by an unruly mob in the Muribasti area over the alleged murder of a local villager on June 20.
Hours after the incident, the local administration made heavy police forces deployment in Naxal Bari's Hatighisa village.
CPI(M) worker dies of injuries suffered in pre-panchayat poll clash
In another turn of events, a CPI(M) worker died on Wednesday at a nursing home in Siliguri from injuries suffered during a clash at Chopra in North Dinajpur district on June 15, the last day of nomination filing for the West Bengal panchayat elections. The party activist had suffered a bullet injury and was also allegedly beaten with sticks, CPI-(M) leader said.
The 23-year-old man was in a critical condition since he was admitted to the private nursing home in Siliguri, about 50 kms away from Chopra town, the functionary said.
CPI(M) central committee member Sujan Chakraborty said it is sad that a young student activist lost his life, and demanded that the culprits be immediately brought to book.
Opposition parties in Bengal have alleged that their candidates and supporters faced violence and intimidation by Trinamool Congress activists, while the ruling party has blamed the opposition for clashes at different places in the state during nomination filing and withdrawal of candidature period, which ended on Tuesday.
Panchayat elections will be held for nearly 75,000 seats in the three-tier Panchayati Raj system on July 8.
SC gives jolt to Mamata govt
The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed pleas challenging a Calcutta High Court order directing the State Election Commission (SEC) to requisition and deploy central forces across West Bengal for the upcoming panchayat elections.
A vacation bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Manoj Misra said the fact remains that the tenor of the high court order is ultimately to ensure free and fair elections in the state since it is conducting local body polls on a single day.
The high court had on June 15 directed the SEC to requisition and deploy central forces across West Bengal for the panchayat elections within 48 hours. The court had noted that no appreciable steps had been taken ever since it passed an order on June 13 to deploy central forces in sensitive areas for the poll process.
The high court had directed the SEC to requisition central forces for deployment in all the districts of the state that were rocked by violence during filing of nominations for the July 8 panchayat elections.
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