Bengal home secretary BP Gopalika, in the affidavit, has said that the NHRC team was “fraught with bias against the ruling dispensation” in the state.
Refuting every allegation levelled by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in its report on post-poll violence in West Bengal, the Mamata Banerjee government has filed a voluminous affidavit before the Calcutta High Court, India Today reported.
Bengal home secretary BP Gopalika, in the affidavit, has said that the NHRC team was “fraught with bias against the ruling dispensation” in the state and that members of the committee have “close association with the Bhartiya Janata Party and or the Central Government”.
The state government said that likes of BJP leader Atif Rasheed were “deliberately chosen” in the NHRC panel since they have “an inherent biasâ and were “predisposed to give a negative reportâ about the law-and-order situation in Bengal.
“Several members of the Committee are either members of the Bharatiya Janata Party or are known to be closely associated with the ruling dispensation in the Central Government. Therefore, the credibility of the Committee in as much as they are expected to investigate in an unbiased and neutral manner is questionable,” the state government has written in its response. The WB government also requested the court not to rely on the findings of the NHRC team.
The NHRC report may âseverely damage and prejudicially effect the reputation of innumerable members of the police force and members of the administrative serviceâ in the state, the Bengal government has further said.
The Bengal government, in its response, accused the central rights panel of flouting provisions of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, and said that the NHRC report has made adverse remarks against members of the public while denying them any opportunity of hearing.
This was a direct reference to the portion where a state minister and other elected representatives of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) were named in its âlist of notorious criminals/goonsâ by NHRC.
The West Bengal government, casting aspersions on the report by the rights body, said that there was âno manner to indicate any basis for the Committee to come to the conclusion that the persons alleged to be goonsâ.
âIn such circumstances, the Report ought not to be considered by this Honâble Court,â the state government said.
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