BJP condemns treatment meted out to judicial officers on SIR duty in Bengal, describes situation unimaginable

BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia on Thursday alleged that TMC workers holding the judicial officers, involved in the Special Intensive Review of voter list (SIR) in West Bengal, hostage. He said the officers, including three women judges, are surrounded by the party workers in an attempt to interfere in their work.

Flagging the lawlessness prevailing in the state, Bhatia, while addressing a press conference at the party headquarters in Delhi, said nobody had imagined the level of lawlessness could reach this extent under the TMC regime. “Mamata Banerjee took an oath to protect the rule of law, yet officials who came to comply with the Supreme Court’s order while carrying out the SIR process were taken hostage.”

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The BJP leader said such a situation has never been seen in the history of independent India where an electoral process like the SIR being carried out on the apex court’s direction was obstructed in such a fashion.

He added that the important aspect of the ongoing exercise is that the Supreme Court entrusted these judicial officers with the task of conducting the SIR-related hearings. However, they were gheraoed and held for around nine hours in the Malda district of West Bengal.

Bhatia said while the officers were released late at night, another worst thing that happened was that their vehicles were attacked with stones.
questioning the law and order situation, he asked why such an incident took place.
Meanwhile, as per reports, the SC has taken a serious note of the incident involving seven judicial officials being taken hostage, and it has also given directions to the poll panel for an investigation by one of the central agencies.