Governor dubs SIT probe as politically caged investigation

According to him Gyanwant Singh has no credibility, as the IPS officer is ‘suffering judicial taint’

Jagdeep Dhankhar : File Picture

Arkamoy Datta Majumdar   |   TT  |  Calcutta   |  24.03.22  :   Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Wednesday wrote to chief minister Mamata Banerjee, saying she took an “accusatory stance” against his “restrained, just reaction” to the Bogtui carnage.

“Politically caged investigation in the state inspires no confidence,” he added. The SIT headed by Gyanwant Singh has no credibility, as the IPS officer is “suffering judicial taint.”, he wrote.

On Tuesday, Mamata had written to Dhankhar, accusing him of trying to malign her government when a “sporadic incident happens”. Dhankhar said her claim of a peaceful Bengal was “farcical”.

He wrote that the National Human Rights Commission had “exposed” rampant post-poll violence in Bengal. He added the rights panel had observed that in Bengal there was “Law of rules, not rule of Law”.

He also rejected Mamata’s claim that there could be a larger conspiracy at play to malign the image of the state. According to Dhankhar, it is “a ruse to shield the guilty of ghastly crime”.

He said the SIT was being used to cover up the truth and provide an escape route to the culprits. He compared the investigators with “men Friday” cut out for “hatchet work” and not for independent probe.

Taking a dig at Mamata’s allegation that the governor chooses to remain silent when ghastly acts are done in BJP-ruled states and elsewhere, Dhankhar wrote that “unlike” Mamata his functional area is the state of Bengal only.

However, he added that “no state has elections dotted by violence; politicised police and bureaucracy and governance far distanced from Constitutional norms and rule of law as the state of West Bengal”. He added that no other chief minister continually failed to perform the constitutional duty of furnishing information to the governor.

He reminded Mamata it is high time that she vindicated her oath of office and “hold the rule of law as the supreme command”.

He urged her to revisit her “confrontational unconstitutional stance and pave way for functioning in togetherness…”

Mamata took a dig at the governor on Wednesday.

“Every time he (Dhankhar) will say Bengal is the worst. Yet he is roaming around every day from Darjeeling to Jalpaiguri. He is abusing the government every day,” Mamata said. She also alleged that the governor is being dictated by the BJP party office.

“I’ve been told by people at high and important places that the governor's house has dictated them to issue certain orders. We know everything,” Mamata added.