Alleged post-poll violence claimed yet another victim when the BJP’s candidate for the Magrahat West Assembly seat Dhurjati Saha succumbed to his injuries on Wednesday.
The saffron outfit immediately said that it will petition the National Human Rights Commission seeking intervention and demanded that the ongoing court-monitored CBI investigation into the post-election violation be extended to cover the Wednesday’s incident.
Saha was attacked on the counting day as the election results started pouring in. “He was trailing during the counting and when he came out of the counting station Trinamool Congress goons led by local TMC MLA Ghyasuddin Molla attacked him giving him head injuries … the next day he was hospitalized ... and finally he succumbed to his injuries today,” Saha’s family members alleged demanding CBI investigation into the case.
BJP MP Arjun Singh who visited the hospital too said, “he was beaten up by the henchmen of local TMC MLA after counting trends showed he (Saha) was trailing. He had to be admitted to the hospital the next day… we are bringing it to the notice of the NHRC and will demand a CBI investigation.”
After leaving incommunicado for the most part of the day Molla later told in the evening that he had nothing to do with the incident.
New Bengal BJP president Dr Sukanto Majumdar said “this is the instance of a democratic government being run by Mamata Banerjee … where even as candidate is not spared … the TMC goons promoted by the State Government has killed Dhurjati Saha who was a dedicated and honest party man … this the blackest day in the Bengal’s politics.”
The death of Saha takes place amid ongoing CBI investigation into the post-poll violence in Bengal.
A five-member bench of the Calcutta High Court acting upon a recommendation of the NHRC had earlier ordered a court-monitored CBI investigation into the incidents of violence.
The death of the BJP candidate comes at a time when a petition --- seeking quashing of the High Court order --- filed by the State Government is pending before the Supreme Court. In the petition the State has claimed that it had acted on 58 percent of the reported cases of violence.
Besides it has also said that most of the violence took place during when the Election Commission was at the helm and not the TMC Government.
On whether the Wednesday’s incident could have any impact on the Apex Court decision a set of lawyers said “we cannot say that it won’t … the Supreme Court will take into account everything legal and factual.”