WB post-poll violence | NHRC report
'Biased, absurd and false; disregard it': Bengal govt tells court on NHRC post-poll violence report
Kolkata/IBNS: The West Bengal government has slammed the report by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) submitted to the Calcutta High Court on post-poll violence in the state and called it "false, absurd, biased, and full of sweeping homilies".
It said the report violated the parameters of enquiry set by the court.
In a 95-page affidavit submitted on Monday, the Mamata Banerjee government urged the court to "disregard the contents of the entire report" as it "does not depict the true and correct picture".
The affidavit also said several members of the NHRC panel were directly linked to the BJP and, therefore, acted biased against the state's ruling dispensation.
The report also provided a list of names in support of their claims: Rajiv Jain, a former Intelligence Bureau officer given several extensions by the BJP government at the Centre; Atif Rashid, a former chief of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad who also served as president of the party's Minority Morcha in Delhi; and Rajulben Desai, associated with its Mahila Morcha in Gujarat.
The affidavit said the NHRC report "pertains to false allegations against the state administration, including the police".
"The NHRC committee has no power to recommend any course of action as has been done in the report," it said, citing the recommendation for a CBI probe.
"The committee has exceeded its mandate and, in doing so, has clearly demonstrated its bias and...stated facts which are entirely denied and disputed by the government," the affidavit added.
It further said that the public interest litigations under consideration in the case are "politically motivated and do not depict the true and correct picture of the state of affairs in West Bengal. The state of West Bengal denies all allegations contrary to records in this PIL".
"It has been falsely alleged in paragraph 19 (3) of the report that the state of West Bengal has provided abysmal accommodation and/or transport to members of the committee," the affidavit said.
Accusing the West Bengal government of 'appalling apathy' towards victims of the post-poll violence, the NHRC had recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into "grievous offences like murder and rape".
The body had also said that these cases should be tried outside the state.
The Calcutta High Court had formed an NHRC committee to probe into the post-poll violence.
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