February 17, 2022
Varun Chugh
Bengal’s post-poll violence investigation
Background
The Constitution of India connotes Unity in Diversity to be considered as One. The Constituent Assembly was constituted for making the Constitution of India by the people of India. Several discourses and debates raged in the Constituent Assembly, but the Constituent Assembly was unanimous on one issue that Democracy is the foundational stone. However, when today, that Democracy was in danger, the Judiciary, who has been resolutely guarding our Democracy, played a crucial role in protecting it.
It is very well said that ‘In a democracy voice of dissent has to be heard and respected’. On Thursday, the Calcutta High Court handed over the cases related to murder, rape, and crimes against women that took place post results to the Central Bureau of Investigation. The Court also constituted a Special Investigation Team investigating all other cases pertaining to post-poll violence, which a retired Supreme Court Judge shall monitor.
The fifty-page report on record shows that the NHRC Committee reported 52 murders even though it had not visited the entire State, whereas the Director General of Police reported only 29. As per the State, there was no rape incident, whereas the Committee reported that there were 11 rape cases. In fact, two of the gang-rape victims had moved to the Hon’ble Supreme Court. Moreover, many had to leave their houses to save their lives. The pernicious and polluted investigation conducted by the State in these matters has deprived the victim of their basic human rights of free and fair investigation and trial. The Hon’ble Court, in this case, observed that the Final report clearly indicates that hardly 14% of the accused named in the FIRs lodged by West Bengal police were arrested, and out of those arrested, 80% were released on bail.
Effectively speaking, only 3% of the accused named are in jail. The data shows that there were 135 cases that the State found not to be true without registration of the FIR in these cases. This is contrary to the established principle of law by the country’s highest Court in Lalita Kumari v. Govt. of U.P., (2014) 2 SCC 1.
Bengal violence was condemnable not just for the partisan role of police but also for the more significant threat to, and curtailment of people’s democratic rights. The Court to install the people’s faith in ‘Rule of Law’ constituted SIT and handed over the investigation to CBI. The need of the hour is long-pending reforms and professionalisation of the police force to save it from being a handmaiden of its political masters.
Justice Bindal observed that “The idea being to inspire confidence regarding the independence of system being followed for investigation of cases”,. In this order, the five-judge bench also directed the State to immediately process the application for victim compensation.
Now this will be a keen question whether the report of SIT and CBI will do justice to the victim or not?
