Sandeshkhali fallout: Neutrality of Bengal Police likely to come under ECI scanner

Kolkata, Feb 15 (IANS) The “neutrality” factor of a section of the West Bengal Police might come under the scanner of the Election Commission of India (ECI) before the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal following the recent developments in Sandeshkhali where the role of a section of the district police administration has been questioned not just by the opposition parties or different national commissions but also by different quarters of the society.

Sources said the role of a section of the state police administration had come more under the scanner of the ECI following adverse observations by the Calcutta High Court and Governor C.V. Ananda Bose questioning the same “neutrality” factor of the police in Sandeshkhali.

Sandeshkhali has been on the boil since last week following protests by local women over the sexual harassment by the associates of absconding Trinamool Congress leader Sheikh Shahjahan, also the accused mastermind of the January 5 attack on ED and CAPF sleuths.

The discomfort in the police administration on this count multiplied after the Calcutta High Court recently made observations of indiscriminately imposing Section 144 in almost the entire Sandeshkhali area soon after the protests by the local women started there.

Armed with the negative court observations, the opposition parties and human rights organisations started questioning the real intention of the administration in imposing Section 144, especially as regards to whether it was done to maintain law & order or to actually stop on-ground information from coming out to the outer world.

Insiders from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal said that actual thinking of the ECI might surface after the full- bench of the commission arrives in the state for a two-day visit from March 4 to take a stock of the poll preparedness.

Besides holding meetings with the top bureaucrats and police officials, the full- bench of the commission will also be meeting the representatives of the different political parties in the state.

Political observers feel that already ECI’s outlook of the law & order situation in West Bengal is reflected in the recent development where the commission has sought the deployment of 920 companies of central armed forces in West Bengal for the Lok Sabha polls, which is the highest among all Indian states.

“Now, the Sandeshkhali developments surely have added to doubts about the neutrality of the state administration especially the police administration,” said a city- based political observer.