Ram Navami
Bengal Ram Navami clashes to be probed by NIA
Kolkata/IBNS: The Calcutta High Court on Thursday directed that the communal clashes, which took place over the Hindu festival Ram Navami in two districts of West Bengal last month, will be probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), media reports said.
The high court has ordered the transfer of the probe from West Bengal Police to NIA acting on a petition filed by state Leader of Opposition and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Suvendu Adhikari.
Violence had rocked West Bengal's Howrah and Hooghly districts during Ram Navami celebrations last month.
Stones were pelted, several vehicles were torched, shops were ransacked as the tension gripped Howrah's Shibpur and later Hooghly.
The incidents triggered a political blame game with the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and BJP getting engaged in a war of words.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had accused her primary opponent BJP of bringing in people from other states to incite violence.
"All the accused, who incited violence in Howrah on Ram Navami, were from outside Bengal, some from Munger in Bihar. People from Bengal stay together, they don’t do ‘danga’. The police hadn’t given permission for their rally," she had said.
The charges were refuted by the BJP, which has accused the Mamata Banerjee government of playing polarisation politics to win back "lost minority votes".
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