A week after violence broke out in Jangipur area of Murshidabad district during a protest against the newly enacted Waqf law, the West Bengal Police has replaced the OCs (officers in-charge) of Samserganj and Suti police stations.

A notification issued from Bhabani Bhavan stated: “Subrata Ghosh, the Circle Inspector of Bhupatinagar, Purba Medinipur, will take charge as Inspector at the Samserganj police station… Supriya Ranjan Majhi, the Sadar traffic Guard of Purba Bardhaman will take charge of Suti Police Station as Inspector in-charge.”

Though the state police headquarters called the transfers “routine”, sources said the new OCs of the two police stations are inspector-rank officers rather than sub inspector-rank outgoing OCs.

“The appointment of inspector-rank officers as OCs, shows the importance and sensitivity of these police stations have been elevated,” an officer said on the condition of anonymity.

Sources said that Shivprasad Ghosh and Bijan Roy – the outgoing OCs of Samserganj and Suti police stations— were in the same post for several years. Both have been transferred to the district police lines.

“A section of the police believes that in order to establish peace in the area, it is most important to restore the trust of the general public in the police administration. The anger of the general public is mainly directed at the lower-level police officers. Many believe that the OCs of the two police stations were transferred for this reason,” said a police officer.

Meanwhile, a day after a 20-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed to investigate the incidents of violence in Murshidabad district, a discussion took place on potential “intelligence failure” leading up to the clashes.

However, in its report to the Calcutta High Court on last week’s violence in Jangipur, the West Bengal government stated that following the April 8 violence in Raghunathganj area, the administration had received intelligence report of possible escalation in the situation on April 11 after the Friday prayers and had accordingly deployed a large contingent of police force at three places — Umarpur, Sajur More in Suti, and Old Dakbungalow More in Samserganj.

But a huge crowd, about 4,000-5,000 men, gathered at Sajur More and they blocked the NH and started throwing bricks and stones at the police personnel, the report added.
Three persons, including a father-son duo, were killed and dozens of police personnel were injured in last Friday’s violence.