SC adjourns hearing on plea seeking SIT probe to probe West Bengal's post-poll violence
Jul 30, 2021
New Delhi [India], July 30 : The Supreme Court of India on Friday adjourned the hearing for two weeks on a plea seeking SIT probe to investigate into causes and reasons of alleged post-poll violence in West Bengal.
A Bench headed by Justice Vineet Saran will hear the matter after two weeks.
Earlier, the Bench had issued notices to the Centre, West Bengal government and Election Commission of India and sought their responses on the plea which also sought compensation for the victims and their families in post-poll violence.
The petition has also sought directions to the Centre to impose President's Rule in West Bengal over alleged incidents of post-poll violence and also to deploy armed paramilitary forces to bring normalcy in the state.
The plea sought direction for constituting a special investigating team (SIT) to probe into the causes and reasons of post-poll violence that occurred in West Bengal from May 2, 2021, and to find out the persons responsible for such violence and appropriate action be taken against culprits in accordance with the law.
The plea filed by Hindu Front for Justice, advocate Ranjana Agnihotri, and one Jitendra Singh claimed that thousands of residents of West Bengal are being terrorised, penalised, and tortured by the workers of Trinamool Congress (TMC) for supporting the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) during General Elections of the State Assembly held in April 2021 of which result was declared on May 2, 2021.
"Petitioners are espousing the cause of thousands of citizens of West Bengal who are mostly Hindus and are being targeted by Muslims to take revenge for supporting BJP as they want to crush Hindus so that for years to come the power may remain with the party of their choice," the plea claimed.
It further sought direction that the Central government and State government to take steps for rehabilitation of the persons who have migrated to Assam or any other place in India due to violence erupted since May 2.
It asked for direction to the Central government and the State government to "take appropriate steps to protect the life, liberty, dignity, and safety of religious places of Hindus as a guarantee under Article 14, 21 and 25 of the Constitution of India and reflected in a solemn declaration made in the preamble of the Constitution."
Several violent incidents were reported after supporters of TMC and BJP allegedly clashed in various parts of the state since May 2, killing at least 16 people and triggering an alleged exodus.
Many petitions were filed after the post-poll violence in West Bengal and the apex court had sought a response from the governments.
