Repeated murders in West Bengal give a handle to Opposition

City’s mayor calls it isolated incident, triggers protest

A spate of shootouts and murders in Kolkata and its suburbs have once again given a handle to the Opposition parties to target the law and order situation in the State.

Six days after a councilor was shot dead at Panihati Municipality, another person was killed in the same municipality. The body of Mohd Arman was found with multiple injuries in the ward number 7 of Panihati Municipality, in North 24 Parganas located in the northern fringes of the city. According to the local people, there were several police cases against Mohd Arman who was released from prison recently. On March 13, Trinamool councilor Anupam Dutta was shot dead in ward number eight of Panihati Muciplaity. The same day Congress councilor Tapan Kandu was killed at Jhalda in Purulia.

Earlier in the day, miscreants opened fire on a person under Tiljala Police Station of Kolkata. The victim, who was admitted to a State-run hospital, was also attacked with sharp weapons. On Friday, a trader died after succumbing to bullet injuries at Regent Park area in the southern fringes of Kolkata. The trader was fired upon by an acquaintance, who was arrested on Saturday.  

 The developments over the past two days have raised questions on the law and order situation particularly when the State government is feeling the heat over the murder of two councilors. Earlier on Saturday, mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation and State’s Minister Firhad Hakim described the developments as “one or two incidents”. “If such incidents do not occur then what is need of police and courts,” Mr. Hakim said, triggering strong reaction from the Opposition.

Communist Party of India(Marxist) leader Sujan Chakraborty said that West Bengal is sitting on “gunpowder keg”. Mr. Chakraborty said that remarks by Firhad Hakim were unfortunate. During the day CPI(M) leadership visited Purulia and met the family of slain Congress councilor. “The police in the State of West Bengal have turned in tooth-less paper tigers performing their tasks at the behest of the ruling Trinamool,” BJP national vice president Dilip Ghosh has said commenting on the murders.