Police must ensure security for political events of Oppn leaders in Bengal: Calcutta HC

Kolkata, Feb 2 (IANS) A division bench of the Calcutta High Court, on Monday, gave clear instructions to both West Bengal Police and Kolkata Police to ensure absolute security for public political programmes of elected representatives from the opposition parties.

The Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari approached the Calcutta High Court in October last year seeking the court’s intervention for a permanent solution to ensure that the public political programmes of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s legislators and parliamentarians, which include a couple of Union ministers of state, do not face unwarranted hostility and resistance from the ruling Trinamool Congress activists.

After the hearing in the matter, the division bench of Calcutta High Court’s Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Partha Sarathi Sen directed the Kolkata Police and West Bengal that they should ensure absolute security for public political programmes of elected public representatives from the opposition parties.

The division bench also directed the state and city police to strictly adhere to the court’s directive in the matter till February 18, the next date of hearing.

In his petition, the LoP alleged that public political programmes of the BJP’s elected public representatives frequently face hostilities, violence, and resistance from the ruling Trinamool Congress activists.

Adhikari also alleged that such hostilities surfaced despite giving advance intimation to the police about the public political programme. He also claimed in the petition that such incidents highlighted the 'failure' of the police and the administration in maintaining law and order in the state.

According to him, such incidents had become common since the end of the last Assembly elections in the state in 2021.

To recall, the convoy of the leader of the opposition himself had been attacked several times, allegedly by the ruling Trinamool Congress activists since 2021. In view of the attacks, the Union Home Ministry had upgraded Adhikari’s security.

Last year, the convoy of the BJP Lok Sabha member Khagen Murmu and the chief whip of the BJP’s legislative party in the West Bengal Assembly, Sankar Ghosh, was also attacked, in which both of them were severely injured and had to be hospitalised.