Suvendu Adhikari, a BJP leader, wrote to West Bengal Director General of Police (DGP) Manoj Malviya on Monday, requesting an investigation into whether the ruling Trinamool Congress used public funds to deploy police forces at primaries to select the party’s panchayat candidates in Cooch Behar district. Adhikari stated on Twitter that if the DGP fails to provide the requisite details, he will pursue legal action.
“TMC (regional party) using police force as a private security agency. I have asked the @DGPWestBengal to inform me whether TMC (regional party) has deposited the cost for the deployment of the police force at Trinamool panchayat primaries. Failure to do so would prompt me to knock on the doors of justice on behalf of the people of Bengal. I believe this is a necessary step to stop the autocratic queen (Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee) from using the state exchequer as her personal piggy bank,” Adhikari tweeted.
Furthermore, in his letter to the DGP, Adhikari demanded to know under what law the Trinamool’s primaries for panchayat elections were conducted, as they serve no public interest. He went on to say that the police were raised and maintained with public funds and that they were answerable to the people for their acts.
“Apropos several media reports and footage, it has come in the public domain that the West Bengal Police was deployed during the primaries to select panchayat candidates of Trinamool Congress (TMC) in Cooch Behar and other districts of West Bengal,” he also said in his letter.
The BJP MLA requested the DP to come clean on if the TMC submitted a monetary amount for deploying the personnel in uniform for the period of the primaries, which is two months, claiming that there is a pro-forma and a subsequent rate chart for the deployment of the police force. He went on to say that if such a payment was made, it should be made public.
“If there so exists any such indulgence under the law of the land, please bring that to public knowledge so that other political parties can also avail such arrangements in the future (sic),” he added.
He highlighted the 1861 Police Act, which states that the fundamental goal of the police is to care for and protect the general inhabitants of the state.
“However, in the light of the events that have been happening in the state of West Bengal, it seems that the police is doing everything but its duty as enshrined in the Act of 1861,” the Leader Of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly said.
Adhikari said it was “highly unfortunate” that the ruling regime was utilising the police as its own security service at a time when the state’s law and order situation had deteriorated to perilous levels.
“It will be quite unfortunate if police are being deployed in such events without any payment by the TMC, as is required under the law. In a democracy, the police are seen as the protector and enforcer of the laws of the land. However, in West Bengal, it seems there exists a different form of democracy wherein the law applies differently to the ruling dispensation as compared to the political opposition. It is highly unfortunate,” Adhikari said, adding that he expected the DGP to clarify these questions at the earliest.
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