Cooch Bihar Firing: Calcutta High Court Seeks Response From State, Centre On Pleas By Victims' Kin Seeking Compensation

The Calcutta High Court on Monday sought response from the State government as well as the Union of India in a batch of petitions filed by the legal heirs of those who died due to the alleged firing by CISF personnel on April 10, 2021, at Sitalkuchi in Cooch Behar district during the West Bengal Assembly polls.

The petitions alleged that the incident was a result of police firing in the course of electioneering. As a result, an independent probe into the matter had been sought. Consequently, the investigation had been transferred to West Bengal's Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

On Monday, a Bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj was apprised that the family members of the victims have filed petitions pertaining to the incident seeking various reliefs including compensation from the State. 

The Court had earlier taken on record the interim status report filed by West Bengal's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on the ongoing investigation while adjudicating upon a batch of Public Interest litigation petitions (PIL) related to the incident. 

On Monday, the Court dismissed the PILs as non-maintainable on account of the fact that the legal heirs of the victims had already filed petitions before the Court seeking relief. 

Furthermore, the counsel appearing for one of the family members of the victims contended before the Court that the family members must be duly compensated by the State since the victims were young in age and were also the sole bread earners of their families. 

Taking cognisance of the grievance raised, the Court directed the State government as well as the Union of India to file their affidavits-in-opposition within a period of 4 weeks. Any reply by the petitioners were ordered to be filed within 1 week thereafter. 

The matter is slated for further hearing on June 13. 

Background

As reported in the media, four villagers of Jor Patki village in Sitalkuchi were killed in the firing of the central forces in West Bengal and one person was killed by some unknown miscreants while coming out after casting vote.

The CISF personnel had opened fire after they allegedly came under attack from a group of villagers at 126/5 in Jorpatki in Sitalkuchi Assembly constituency where polling was underway for the fourth phase of West Bengal election 2021 on April 10. West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department (CID) took over the case on April 16.

The Election Commission has already given a clean chit to the CISF for opening fire in Sitalkurchi Assembly constituency in Cooch Behar, saying that opening fire "became necessary to save the lives of the voters" and it was made in "self-defense".

Further, the Commission had also canceled the voting at the polling station after the incident and imposed a ban on the entry of politicians into Cooch Behar for 72 hours apprehending trouble.

Case Title: Aminuddin Khan v. Union of India and other connected matters

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