In its report on post-poll violence in West Bengal submitted to the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) labelled several Trinamool Congress MLAs, councillors and leaders as “notorious criminals/goons”, triggering a political controversy in the state with several leaders threatening to take legal action against the rights body.

The leaders not only questioned the integrity of the commission but also accused it of showing a vindictive attitude.

In the annexure ‘K’ attached with the original report submitted before the HC, the NHRC has placed 102 persons across 16 broad regions of West Bengal, including state minister Jyotipriya Mullick, a prominent leader and former MLA Udyaan Guha, Naihati MLA Partha Bhowmick, Canning East MLA Saokat Molla, Trinamool South 24 Parganas youth leader Jahangir Khan, former councillor Jiban Saha and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s chief election agent in Nandigram, Sheikh Sufiyan, under the ‘list of notorious criminals/goons’.

Banerjee has already questioned the integrity and honesty of the commission, alleging that the report has been deliberately leaked to the media to embarrass the Trinamool Congress.

“This is political vendetta. They (BJP) cannot accept defeat and so they are taking recourse to all these things. The matter is pending before the court, so how can it reach the media,” the Chief Minister asked.

Meanwhile, the NHRC has refuted the allegations of leakage of the report to the media.

“NHRC has already shared the copy of the said report with the advocates of the concerned parties in this matter in accordance with the directions of the Calcutta High Court dated July 15. The National Human Rights Commission constituted a committee to enquire into the post-poll violence in West Bengal, as per the directions of the Calcutta High Court. The committee submitted its report to the high court on July 13, 2021,” NHRC said in a press release.

“On the further directions of the court, the committee provided a copy of the said report to its advocate in Kolkata, who shared it with the advocates of all the concerned parties in the related multiple writ petitions. The matter being sub-judice, the committee of the NHRC did not share its report to any entity other than those specified by the court. Since the report is already available with all the concerned parties as per the directives of the court, there is no question of leakage at the level of the NHRC,” it added.

However, senior Trinamool Congress leaders have strongly reacted against the report.

“I am shocked. I believe the report is fabricated and a deliberate attempt to malign our party’s image. I don’t know why and from where the NHRC collected such information against me. There is no complaint or FIR lodged against me with any police station across Bengal. I am a lawyer by profession and was the chairman of the West Bengal Bar Council. I would like to take legal action against it (NHRC) following our party’s instruction,” said state minister Jyotipriya Mullick.

Sheikh Sufiyan, a veteran leader of the land rights agitation in Nandigram, said the report is part of a “large conspiracy”.

“The National Human Rights Commission members only visited the houses of the alleged victims of post-poll violence belonging to the BJP. One of our prominent workers was killed on the day of the election but the committee members never visited his home. It shows how partial they were. My name has been listed here just because I was the Chief Minister’s election agent. We will fight it out in the court,” said Sufiyan.

Trinamool MLA Saokat Molla too sounded shocked and surprised.

“In my 25 years of a political career, I have never had a single criminal case lodged against me. But today I find my name listed as a notorious criminal and goon. I wonder from where they collected the data and on what basis they labelled me with the tag notorious.” asked Molla.