Govt offices attacked during SIR hearings in West Bengal

Angered by the ongoing Special Investigation Agency (SIR) in West Bengal, locals attacked two offices of Block Development Officers (BDO) in the state in the last two days. Locals led by the Trinamool Congress attacked a BDO office in Farakka on Wednesday, while a mob vandalized the BDO office at Chakulia in Uttar Dinajpur district on Thursday.

“An excited mob of around 300 people forced their way into the office building, rushed into the office building at 9.30 am and destroyed various parts of the office building as well as various infrastructures,” said the police complaint of BDO Chakulia.

The complaint stated that property worth around Rs 20 lakh was destroyed during the gang’s attack. “Later, a mob forcibly stormed the office building and started destroying the entire infrastructure, office accessories, electronic gadgets and various office documents in different departments like welfare department, welfare department, SHG, NRLM department and more. After destroying the physical belongings, they set fire to all the broken and torn materials inside and outside the office room, which caused serious damage to the office,” the complaint said.

A mob protesting SIR hearings looted the Block Development Office (BDO) and attacked police personnel at Chakulia in North Dinajpur | Photo Credit: ANI

A senior police officer said the Chakulia police station in-charge was injured in the violence. He added that police had to use force to disperse the crowd.

West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal described the violence as an “occasional incident” and said the issue had been brought to the notice of the highest echelon of the West Bengal government. The World Bank CEO shared links from his official social unit to two FIRs lodged in connection with the violence at the Chakulia BDO office.

“General Secretary GoWB and DGP WBP ensured impeccable security arrangements at SIR hearing rooms,” the post on social media platform ‘X’ said.

Meanwhile, 5 people were detained in the violence that took place at BDO’s Farakka office in Murshidabad district. The FIR by the administration did not name Farakka MLA Monirul Islam, but the MLA was present during the vandalism of the BDO office. The MLA was seen chanting slogans “I don’t accept SIR, I don’t accept it”.

Commenting on the vandalism, Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said such incidents should not happen but added that people were being harassed in the name of SIR. Mr. Banerjee threatened to protest if the list of logical inconsistencies was not made public by the ECI.

“Democratic protests will be held in Kolkata and Delhi unless the ECI issues a logical list of inconsistencies. Why was Bengal chosen? Although we asked many times, we did not get any response. Once the protests start, Gyanesh Kumar will realize the strength of Bengal,” Mr. Banerjee said on Wednesday.

“After deletion of around 58 lakh names in the first phase of SIR, the ECI has issued notices to around 1.36 crore people in the state due to ‘logical inconsistencies’. These people are being summoned before the ECI.”

West Bengal BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya said such incidents were inevitable when the Chief Minister encouraged people to target the ECI. The BJP leader said the violence at BDO offices reflects lawlessness in the state.