CM Suvendu Adhikari Orders Reopening of Old Cases, Says “No One Will Be Spared”

Garbeta, West Midnapore : West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday announced that his government will reopen old criminal cases linked to the 2001 Chhoto Angaria killings and the 2007 Nandigram violence, and directed the police to trace and arrest CPI(M) leader Tapan Ghosh. “No one will be spared,” he said.Addressing a ‘Save Democracy’ public meeting at Garbeta in Paschim Medinipur district, the Chief Minister said the cases of the “Left Front era” would be reopened and investigated. Mr Adhikari, who took oath as the state’s first BJP Chief Minister on May 9 this year, accused the CPI(M) and the Trinamool Congress of joining hands to bring back “anarchy” in Bengal. “From Chhoto Angaria to Nandigram, around 300 CPM cadres entered Nandigram in Nov 2007 and killed eleven people. These old cases, including incidents involving Tapan Ghosh and local CPM leaders, must be reopened and investigated. At a time when people are demanding development, any attempt to disturb law and order must not be tolerated. All these TMC and CPM goons should be behind bars.”The Chief Minister said he would reopen cases against those who, he alleged, travelled from the CPI(M) office in Garbeta with firearms to Nandigram during the 2007 anti-land acquisition movement. “I will reopen the crime files committed during the Left Front era in Nandigram and Chhoto Angaria. I will reopen the cases of those who went from the CPI(M) office in Garbeta with guns to create the bloody sunrise in Nandigram in 2007. Not a single person will be spared,” he said. Referring to Tapan Ghosh and Garbeta zonal committee secretary Sukur Ali, the Chief Minister asked where they were. “Where is Tapan Ghosh? Is he still here or has he fled? I want to see him behind bars,” he said. Both men were arrested by the CBI as alleged key masterminds behind the Chhoto Angaria killings, but were among 13 accused acquitted in 2009 for lack of evidence. Eleven Trinamool Congress supporters were allegedly killed by CPI(M) workers in the village in Paschim Medinipur district. Reports describe an attack on the house of a Trinamool worker in which five party workers were allegedly burnt alive. The CPI(M)’s ‘Suryodaya’ operation was launched on November 10, 2007, during the anti-land acquisition movement, and several leaders of the movement were killed in the violence that followed. Human rights groups put the overall toll in the November 2007 clashes at 14–15 villagers. The Chief Minister alleged that CPI(M) general secretary M A Baby and former chief minister Mamata Banerjee had grown close, calling the two parties “brothers-in-arms”. He was responding to CPI(M) state secretary Mohammad Salim recent remark in Garbeta that people had resisted an alleged BJP attack on the Left party.CM Adhikari said government jobs would be given to the families of those who died in political violence since 1998, and that Garbeta would be granted subdivision status in the next state budget. He also said his government had strengthened border security since May and joined central welfare schemes such as Ayushman Bharat and PM Kisan.