While Kolkata and several towns across the state were paralysed by the bandh called by the Forward Bloc today -- and backed by Opposition parties as well -- top FB leaders here alleged that 17 CRPF personnel were among those who fired at the protesters. Several eyewitnesses and local residents also joined in to level the allegation.
"How can the CPM government use a Central force to unleash violence on an ally?" asked Udayan Guha, Forward Bloc Coochbehar district secretary and son of late Forward Bloc veteran Kamal Guha.
Along with other leaders, including Hafiz Alam Sairani and Naren Chatterjee, Guha held rallies in Dinhata town daring the Left Front to take action against the party.
Denying that the CRPF opened fire, officials of the local police station admit that a contingent of the paramilitary force was deployed at the Dinhata SDO's office as "standby." Said Inspector in charge Sudhanshu Roy: "They came to our help, they might have even raised their hands and put their fingers on the trigger to scare away the crowd but they certainly did not fire."
Asked why Central forces were deployed in what was a routine law-and-order issue, Roy said: "The CRPF unit was requisitioned for deployment for a Rail Roko programme today called by members of the Greater Kamtapur United Forum (GKUF), a conglomerate of small ethnic groups like Koch and Rajbanshis and others in this region."
When contacted, IG (CRPF) Subhash Goswami told The Indian Express: "The state police had requisitioned a unit to be put on standby to play a role only if the situation went out of control."
Asked if the CRPF personnel had any role in the police firing, he said: "They were kept on standby but I have heard these allegations and I have already asked for a report from the unit detailing the sequence of events."
Coochbehar Superintendent of Police Aniul Kumar declined to comment and District Magistrate Rajesh Sinha said he was not even aware that a CRPF unit was deployed for law and order duty at the SDO office. SDO Debasish Chakrabarty declined to comment.
But local Forward Bloc leaders kept the heat on. They claimed that the Left Front government had gone back on its election promises and its policies. "The Left Front should face fresh polls and instead, we are being asked to pull out of the Front," they said.
Meanwhile, the police booked at least 40 people on charges of arson, rioting and damaging public property. Significantly, the two leaders who had led the deputation yesterday at the SDO office, Guha and Nripen Roy, zonal secretary of the Dinhata Forward Bloc, have not been booked. Sources said the government strategy is to to split the leaders from the ranks.