West Bengal: Governor Dhankhar seeks response from Chief Secretary on Netai incident
Jan 29, 2022
Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], January 29 : Days after West Bengal Police allegedly prevented West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari from attending an event in Netai, Dhankar has now sought a response from the state Chief Secretary to fully update him about issues.
Dhankar has sought a response from the Chief Secretary by January 31. He called the earlier response by the West Bengal government "evasive and derogatory".
"Evasive and diversionary response rendered on January 25, 2022, by the Chief Secretary as regards the significant issue of stopping the Leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, near Netai on January 1, 2022, in spite of categorical and firm judicial directives, is worrisome and concerning," the official statement addressed to the Chief Secretary read.
Earlier, a meeting was called by the governor following this incident in Netai. However, the meeting was not attended by the Chief Secretary and West Bengal Director General of Police citing "identical messages."
"The Chief Secretary and the DGP were directed to brief the undersigned on the incident, fully updated, with a written report on 10.1.2022 at 11.00 a.m. There was compliance failure and minutes before the scheduled meeting, nearly identical messages emanated at 10.49 a.m. on 10.1.2022 from both the Chief Secretary and the DGP indicating thus...," it read.
"I have been directed to inform you that most of the senior officers are currently down with corona or their family members are affected, while the remaining are engaged with Gangasagar duty and management of Covid situation. In view of the above, it is requested to reschedule the meeting with a senior officer after this current spate of the corona has come down. Report on the above-mentioned incident is being sent," the message in the letter read.
"In this premise, the Chief Secretary be called upon to be present on January 31, 2022 at 11.00 am fully updated with the issues already flagged, including under whose directive the messages were imparted on January 10, 2022 at 10.49 am; why there was an absence of ACS Home and the Police official next to the DGP in the scheduled meeting on January 10, 2022 and why no report from their end was sent on the issue of ill treatment of Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari."
On January 8, in a series of tweets, Suvendu Adhikari alleged that on January 7, 2011, armed goons fired indiscriminately at innocent villagers in Netai, Binpur Block, Jhargram.
"Nine lives were lost and several got injured," the BJP leader said. To take stock of the situation, both Adhikari and Dhankar planned to visit the site of the incident but were allegedly denied by the police.
