Use central forces also to control Beldanga violence, says Calcutta high court

KOLKATA: The Calcutta high court on Tuesday directed the West Bengal government to use central paramilitary forces stationed in Murshidabad district to control the unrest in Beldanga following the death of a local migrant worker in Jharkhand.

“Immediate and effective measures are required to ensure life, liberty, dignity and property of citizens in the said district, including Beldanga,” a bench of chief justice Sujoy Paul and justice Partha Sarathi Sen said.

The bench, which was hearing a petition by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Suvendu Adhikari, said the incidents were “worrisome” and the Centre would be at liberty to order a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) if it saw it necessary.

In his petition, Adhikari sought directions for the deployment of central forces and an NIA probe into the “worrisome” incidents at Beldanga. “The targeted attacks on Hindus should be prevented,” Adhikari’s lawyer Billwadal Bhattacharyya told the court.

The high court has directed the state and the central government to file affidavits within 15 days and said the Centre would be free to order a probe by the federal anti-terror agency under Section 6(5) of the NIA Act that authorises the Centre to direct the agency to probe any scheduled offence.

Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member and senior lawyer Kalyan Banerjee, who appeared for the state government, told the bench that the state police took appropriate action and arrested more than 30 people. He said peace prevailed at Beldanga at the time of Tuesday’s hearing.

Banerjee said the state would not object to deploying central police forces as well and described Adhikari’s plea as “a political interest litigation” in the run-up to the assembly polls.

Violence erupted last week after a 36-year-old migrant worker, a Beldanga resident, was murdered in Jharkhand. Protesters blocked NH-12 and the railway tracks for more than six hours on January 16. The blockades were held on January 17 as well when reports of an alleged assault on another migrant worker in Bihar surfaced on social media.

Central forces have been stationed in Murshidabad under the high court’s orders since April 2025, when communal violence was reported in the Jangipur subdivision during protests by local Muslims against the Waqf (Amendment) Act. Muslims comprise 66% of the district’s population, the highest in Bengal, according to the 2011 census.