Calcutta High Court (File)The Calcutta High Court on Thursday directed the state government to take all possible steps to ensure no violence takes place during any protest over the alleged controversial remarks made against Prophet Mohammad by former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma. The High Court also asked the government to call in central paramilitary forces if the need arises.
Hearing several PILs seeking deployment of Army or central forces to contain widespread violence that erupted in several districts last week, the court expressed its apprehensions that the violent protests might occur again.
“We direct State authorities to assess the ground situation in advance and take steps to call central forces … if the need so arises, before the situation goes out of control or before any loss of life or property takes place,” said a division bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice R Bharadwaj.
The bench directed the state government to take expeditious steps to collect video footage of incidents of violence and property vandalisation and take action as per law.
On June 13, the court had expressed hope that state authorities would take all possible steps to make sure that no untoward incident took place and peace was maintained. During a hearing on Wednesday, the petitioners alleged that large congregations were taking place under the garb of peaceful gathering and provocative slogans were being raised.
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Last week, large-scale violence had taken place in Howrah, Nadia and Murshidabad districts over the alleged controversial remarks against Prophet Mohammad by former BJP spokespersons Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal.
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