Kolkata, March 27 – The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday directed the Chief Secretary of West Bengal, Dushyant Nariala, to immediately suspend Avijit Paul, the Inspector-in-Charge of the Basanti Police Station in the South 24 Parganas district, in connection with the violence and clashes in the area, which erupted on March 26.
A police sub-inspector was also attacked by a group of miscreants allegedly linked to the ruling Trinamool Congress.
In a communication sent to the Chief Secretary by the ECI’s Under Secretary, Shakti Sharma, the Commission observed that the police failed to make adequate arrangements despite having prior information about the public programme of the two political parties.
The communication stated that although Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) were available for the past few days, Paul did not requisition them for maintaining law and order.
The Commission noted that this reflected serious negligence and dereliction of duty on his part.
The ECI directed that Paul be placed under suspension with immediate effect and departmental proceedings be initiated against him.
He is being replaced by Inspector Prabir Ghosh of the Enforcement Branch of the West Bengal Police.
The Chief Secretary was also instructed to implement the directive immediately and send a compliance report to the Commission by 9 p.m. on Friday.
Earlier in the day, Amit Malviya, the chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Information Technology cell and the party’s central observer for West Bengal, claimed that the violence and clashes at Basanti on Thursday were triggered by provocative statements made by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at an election campaign rally earlier in the day.
According to him, tension at Basanti began minutes after the Chief Minister, while addressing a rally at Pandaveswar in West Burdwan district, called upon her party workers to arm themselves "with whatever was at home" to crush the opposition.
He further accused the local police administration of acting as mute spectators while the rampage, allegedly by ruling party activists, was underway.