West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar today wrote a letter to chief minister Mamata Banerjee saying the state witnessed the worst form of post-poll violence while the state home department claimed the contents to be fabricated and clarified that all the incidents had occurred when the law and order was under the Election Commission of India.

“With a heavy heart, I am constrained to observe your continued silence and inaction over the post-poll retributive bloodshed, violation of human rights, outrageous assault on the dignity of women, wanton destruction of property, perpetuation of untold miseries on political opponents…worst since independence…,” said Dhankhar, who is scheduled to fly to Delhi today and is likely to meet Union home minister Amit Shah.

He wrote the violence “ill augurs” for democracy. The letter came a day after Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of the Opposition, and 50 other BJP legislators, met Dhankhar and lodged a complaint on post-poll violence. In response to Dhankhar’s letter, the state home department today tweeted saying the contents of the letter were not consistent with real facts.

“Government of West Bengal has observed with dismay and distress that the Hon’ble Governor of West Bengal has suddenly made public a letter of his to the Hon’ble Chief Minister of West Bengal, with contents that are not consistent with real facts,” the department tweeted. The department said that the communication format “is violative of all established norms”.

“The letter has been written to Hon’ble Chief Minister & released to public media through tweets simultaneously, which disrupts sanctity of such communications. The unusual step of going public in this manner abruptly and unilaterally has shocked the Government of West Bengal all the more because the contents are fabricated,” the tweet read.

Claiming that incidents of violence occurred when law and order was under the Election Commission, the department posted, “While the post-poll violence in the State was somewhat unabated when the Election Commission of India was in charge of the law and order machinery, after the swearing in, the State Cabinet has reigned in the situation, restored normalcy and established full command over anti-law elements. State police have been firmly directed to bring to book all anti-socials and the Government remains committed to maintain the basic fabric of society and to uphold law and order.”