CALCUTTA, 6 May 2004 — The Election Commission dealt another blow to the West Bengal government yesterday by barring two more tainted police officers from election-related duties. The EC’s latest order in a series of measures to ensure free and fair elections drew an angry response from the ruling Left Front even as Congress Party, Trinamool Congress (TC) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) praised the election watchdog.
Earlier, EC had shunted three senior IPS officers — two superintendents of police and a deputy inspector-general of police — who were considered too close to the Left Front. Its latest action is against Satyaranjan Chaki, officer-in-charge of Patashpur police station in East Midnapore district and Mohammad Kalimuddin, an inspector of Kolkata’s Narkeldanga police station.
Like the IPS officers, they were removed after probing serious charges leveled against them by opposition parties of “acting at the behest of their CPI(M) bosses”.
While Chaki was moved following a complaint by Rahul Sinha, BJP candidate in Midnapore, Kalimuddin was accused by Trinamool Congress candidate from Calcutta (North East), Ajit Panja, of inaction when Marxist cadres threatened and abused him recently.
Sinha and Panja submitted a written complaint to Chief Election Commissioner, T. S. Krishnamurthy, at Calcutta’s Raj Bhavan on Saturday. Krishnamurthy sought a report from provincial police authorities. While TC leaders said that the EC was neutral, a senior Left Front leader, said: “It appears that EC is functioning in a highly partisan way. The people of Bengal are losing faith in EC.”
A major bone of contention between the Left Front and EC is the deployment of personnel from other states to conduct elections in West Bengal — a move that has drawn flak from ex-Chief Minister Jyoti Basu and Marxist chief Anil Biswas. But Krishnamurthy pointed out that barely one percent of polling personnel are being brought from outside the state.
Moreover, Congress Party’s sitting MP from Jangipur Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury complained to EC that the local Superintendent of Police Gyanwant Singh was gunning for him. He complained that Singh had not only revived old criminal cases to round up his key supporters and campaign managers but had threatened to put him behind bars. Much to the Left Front’s embarrassment the EC ordered the West Bengal government to post a senior IPS officer of the rank of DIG in Murshidabad to keep Singh on a leash.
