Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday ordered a CBI investigation into the alleged tampering of documents for the Panchayat Elections 2023. Justice Amrita Sinha of the High Court delivered the order. A case was filed in court alleging tampering with panchayat election documents. Justice Sinha directed the CBI to submit a report on the matter on July 7, the eve of the Panchayat Elections 2023.
While ordering the CBI probe, the judge said that the official against whom the complaint is made is a government employee in the state. Therefore, it will not be appropriate to give the onus of this investigation to the state. The case that was filed was against Uluberia-1 BDO, Howrah, alleging distortion of information. There have been allegations of tampering with the nomination papers of two candidates named Kashmira Bibi and Omja Bibi. Allegedly, the caste certificate was submitted on time but not registered by BDO. As a result, the names of those candidates were omitted from the scrutiny.
Therefore, a request was made to the court to order a CBI investigation into the incident. Justice Amrita Sinha granted the request and ordered a CBI investigation. The State Government and the State Election Commission objected to this, but the court rejected it. The judge said that all the videos should be preserved from the nomination process till now.
The Calcutta High Court Judge Amrita Sinha reprimanded the State Election Commission for the violence surrounding the panchayat elections. "If there is so much bloodshed, violence, clashes in a panchayat election. Then this election should be stopped," Justice Sinha commented during the hearing of the case on Wednesday.
Notably, the names of some of the candidates who were given symbols after filing their nominations in South 24 Parganas were allegedly not available on the website of the State Election Commission since Tuesday. The CPIM candidates of Bhangar approached the Calcutta High Court regarding the matter. Their complaint is that the names of at least 16-17 people have been omitted from the commission's website.
The lawyer who filed the case said, "The names of those candidates were on the list till June 19. Suddenly our name has been dropped?" In this case, the court order, if the candidates withdraw the nomination at will, then it is a different matter. If not, those candidates should be allowed to contest the election. The commission will look into the matter.
It was during the hearing of this case that there were allegations of violence surrounding the filing of nomination for the Panchayat Elections 2023. In view of that complaint, the judge said, "If there is so much bloodshed, violence, conflict in a panchayat election. Then this election should be stopped.”
The state has raised the issue of violence in panchayat elections in the past in the Left Front regime. The judge said, "Don't talk about what happened in 1999, what happened in 2003." Moreover, the state said that violence took place in only 8 blocks. The rest is peaceful. Then Justice Amrita Sinha said, "I am receiving cases where it is seen that people are being beaten up, threats of rape are being made. What are these?"
Moreover, the court said, if this is the law and order situation, the candidates who are not able to file their nominations on time, then they have to be given extra time.
