Tripura forms panel to examine all political violence cases

Tripura's BJP-IPFT government has decided to examine all cases of political violence in which family members of those killed are seeking proper investigation so that culprits are punished.

The government has formed a three-member probe committee headed by Law Minister Ratan Lal Nath which will provide its recommendations after completion of the investigations, a government notification said.

Besides Nath, the panel has Law Department Principal Secretary DM Jamatia as a member and Home department Additional Secretary Devananda Reang as the convener.

However, the CPI(M), which was at the helm in the state for 25 years before the BJP-led government came to power in March 2018, is apprehending that the panel was formed to harass the party members and will not look into the incidents of violence that took place in the past one year.

"The state government has decided to examine all cases in which the victims died due to political violence long before and the family members of the victims are claiming for proper investigation of these cases so that the actual culprits are punished as per provision of law," said the notification issued by Reang on Thursday.

Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb had appealed to all parties in the state to stop violence and said his government would take stern action against the perpetrators irrespective of their political identity.

He had said 186 cases of violence was registered in the state after the Election Commission announced the Lok Sabha election schedule in March.

During the 2013 and 2018 Assembly elections, when the CPI(M) was in power, a total of 245 and 439 cases of poll- related violence were registered respectively, he had said.

Deb's statement came after CPI(M) leader and former chief minister Manik Sarkar met him on May 28 and urged him to stop violence allegedly unleashed by BJP supporters since the BJP-IPFT government came to power.

CPI(M) state committee member Pabitra Kar Saturday claimed that this committee was formed to harass its workers.

"We also do not think that the recent cases of violence will come under the ambit of the committee. Unchecked terror by BJP supporters are continuing in the state," said Kar, also secretary of CPI(M) West Tripura district committee.