The Calcutta High Court on Monday asked the West Bengal government and Border Security Force (BSF) Inspector General SC Budakoti to submit separate reports to the court on incidents of violence over the panchayat elections held in the state on 8 July.

Budakoti was the central nodal officer for the rural civic body polls. As many as 39 persons have been killed in poll-related violence since the announcement of the polling date.

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The directive of the Division Bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya seeking reports from both the BSF IG and the state government comes at a juncture when Budakoti has already accused the State Election Commission of non-cooperation in effective deployment and utilisation of central armed forces on the polling day. BSF DIG SS Guleria, said, “The CAPF personnel are doing their duty in a professional manner.

Wherever we were asked to be deployed we ensured free and fair polls. In the repolling today, no untoward incident took place. The central forces are assisted by the state government, who are aware which are sensitive booths and the government is supposed to utilise us in those booths. Violence is unfortunate.” On the court ruling, he said, “Whatever time we are given, we will submit the report to the court.

Whatever the report will have will be in the interest of the nation and based on our observation on the ground, so that the bandobast improves in future and BSF manages to better work. We would also like to stress that the lessons learnt will not be repeated in the future.”

A BSF source said that the report may contain the fact that analysis of sensitive booths is done in advance for better planning and it is shared by the security forces. It is an operational requirement for area dominance and confidence building. “But on 7 July the list is handed over to us by SHO for deployment. Multiply the sensitive booths by 4 as we deploy 4 personnel in a booth. We had enough troops to cover such booths. The analysis of sensitive booths is done by the police, SEC and government.

BSF also needed the location of the booths.” The BSF IG is also slated to submit a detailed report to the Union home ministry on pollrelated violence. West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose is also in the national capital now, and will submit his own report on the panchayat poll violence to home minister Amit Shah.

On Monday, after the initial hearing of a petition filed by state Congress President Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Division Bench of the Chief Justice directed the state government to make arrangements for proper treatment of those who were injured in poll-related violence.