Judicial Inquiry Demanded for victims of Bengal Violence

Madhu Patel

Chicago The society at large has been at the receiving end of the brutal and gruesome political violence that started in West Bengal a couple of weeks ago More than 3500 villages and over 40-thousand Hindus, including our SC & ST brethren in great numbers, are badly affected by the violence.

There have been atrocities on women at many places. Standing crops have been destroyed. Shops and houses have been destroyed. The farm fishponds have been poisoned. Now groups of goons are forcibly collecting protection-money from the victims and other terrorized Hindus with phony promises to spare them from further lootings and assaults. The footprints and signatures of Islamic Jihadists are obvious in all these incidents and patterns.

The attitude of the State government and the administration on brutal violence seems to be completely indifferent and despicable. There is an atmosphere of fear in the society. Due to this fear & non-co-operation of the local police, victim’s complaints/Cases are not being registered. In view of this attitude, the concerned Indian Americans here pitch for a judicial probe to take suo-moto cognizance of the situation in public interest and to protect citizens besides giving strict directions to the State government and the local administration to perform their primary duties of ensuring law & order in the State!

The rioters must be arrested at the earliest and given exemplary punishment for their nefarious actions. At the same time, the State government should fast-track the mechanism to compensate victims for the loss of life and property of the victims and rehabilitate them.

At many places, important documents like the Voter Cards, Aadhar Cards and Ration Cards, etc., have also been snatched away from victims. The same must be retrieved and returned to the victims, and the false cases lodged against the victims of violence should be quashed.

A plea is also made to State government that it should rise above petty politics and curb violence, with an iron hand perpetrated by local criminals and Jihadi elements