The National Human Rights Commission has taken cognisance of the death of an elderly couple at Kadwip in the State’s South 24 Parganas district and sought report from the District Magistrate and Superintendent of police of the district.
On the eve of polling for panchayat polls in West Bengal on May 14, Debu Das and wife Usha Das were burnt to death, when their house caught fire. The couple were supporters of Communist Party of India (Marxist). The CPI(M) leadership claimed that supporters of Trinamool Congress (TMC) had set their house on fire.
A petition alleging police inaction filed by Jadavpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra was sent to the NHRC.
Prof. Mahapatra who is a convener of Aakranta Amraa, a body comprising of victims of human right violations in West Bengal said that he wrote to NHRC, when he found there was no action days after the incident.
In the communication sent to the petitioner, the NHRC has also informed that it has also roped in the West Bengal Human Rights Commission.
“Let a copy of the complaint be also transmitted to the Secretary, West Bengal State Human Rights Commission to inform this Commission the date of cognisance, if any, taken at their end in the instant matter within this period,” the direction issued by the NHRC said.
The NHRC also directed the Director General, Investigation Division of the Commission, shall also get the facts collected over telephone and put up the same within 3 days.
Last week the NHRC took suo motu cognisance of the death of Trilochan Mahato, a 20- year-old BJP worker whose body was founding hanging on the tree in Raghunathpur in Purulia. The NHRC while taking suo motu cognisance had observed that “difference of opinion and ideology are obvious in a multi-party democratic political system”.