West Bengal elections: Plea in Supreme Court seeking protection for opposition leaders

A plea has been filed before the Supreme Court seeking directions to the West Bengal government to provide protection to opposition leaders in the state to ensure that a free and fair Assembly election is conducted in 2021.

The public interest petition filed by advocates Vineet Dhanda and Puneet Kaur Dhanda has also sought status report regarding the investigation into the killing of more than 300 activists and leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government came into power.

The plea has also sought direction to union home secretary to deploy adequate paramilitary forces to ensure free and fair Assembly polls and direction to the Election Commission to submit a detailed report regarding bogus voters and also take steps to remove them.

The plea has been filed after the Apex Court recently granted protection to BJP leaders Arjun Singh, Kailash Vijayvargiya, Pawan Singh, Mukul Roy and Saurav Singh from any coercive steps to be taken by the West Bengal Police in FIRs registered against them which are pending investigation. The petitioners had claimed that they were being accused in false cases to prevent them from entering the state ahead of Assembly elections early next year. According to the petitioners, false FIRs have been registered against BJP leaders and that investigation should be transferred from the WB police to any other investigation agency.

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