"Police Acting Like Party Cadre": NCSC Submits Report On Sandeshkhali, Recommends President's Rule In West Bengal

After the visit to West Bengal's Sandeshkhali on Thursday (15 February), the National Commission For Scheduled Castes (NCSC) submitted its report to President Droupadi Murmu today recommending President's Rule.

NCSC's Chairman (Incharge) Arun Halder made allegations of "non-cooperation" against the Mamata Banerjee-led state government. He said that no vehicle came to receive them even after sending an official letter.

Sandeshkhali is a place in North 24 Parganas district. Several women here had been protesting for the last few days over the alleged atrocities and sexual assault against them by TMC leader Shajahan Sheikh and his aides.

Halder said, "There were women who wanted to say a lot of things but an atmosphere of fear was created there, due to which they couldn't speak much." However, he claimed that on account of his experience of 34 years, he understood what they wanted to say.

He said that women told him that TMC's zilla parishad member Uttam Sardar and his aides used to pick them up and keep them seated for the whole night, however, they did not clearly say what they used to do.

Halder alleged, "Police didn't cooperate us to meet with the victim families. We used our own source to reach their homes and talk to them. We also suggested to use special constitutional mandate to safeguard SCs but the police were not ready to listen to us."

"As soon as we reached Sandeshkhali Police Station, ADG Siddhinath Gupta left the place and didn't talk to us. It was insulting to us. These officers behaved like party cadre. If they could do this to a constitutional body, imagine what they do with common people," he added.

Halder was quoted as saying by NDTV, "Criminals in the state have joined hands with the government there (and this) is impacting the lives of members of the Scheduled Caste communities."