Academics write to president Ram Nath Kovind over violence on SC members in Bengal

KOLKATA:  A group of 115 academicians on Thursday appealed to President Ram Nath Kovind to intervene "urgently to save the members of the Scheduled Caste who have fled from West Bengal after the conclusion of the Assembly elections". 

The letter claimed that hundreds of such people have fled to other states, including Assam, Odisha and Jharkhand, fearing post-violence.

"With the result declaration of the West Bengal Assembly elections on May 2 more than 11,000 and most of them belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes have been rendered homeless and over 40,000 of such people have been affected in 1626 incidents of brutal attacks," read the letter addressed to the President. 

"The state-sponsored activists of Trinamool Congress in collaboration with the state police have targeted the SC/ST community and spread the violence of killing, looting, raping, and occupying their land. The SC & ST community being the sufferer of this brutal violence needs an assurance of rebuilding and resettling their plundered houses," the letter alleged.