Releasing a petition seeking a CBI probe into the murder of a father-son duo, who were killed in the communal violence that had rocked parts of Murshidabad district in April, the Calcutta High Court on Thursday advised the state government to employ more police personnel.

“Now is the time to recruit sufficient police personnel. The number of police personnel in each district is less. The police force in Murshidabad is also very small,” the court said, adding had there “been a sufficient number of police personnel, the situation in Dhuliyan could have been brought under control”.

The High Court bench further commented that there should be a minimum number of forces in every place.

The state government’s counsel, Kalyan Bandopadhyay, however, pointed out that there is a shortage of forces in the entire country. “If there were sufficient forces, the incident in Pahalgam would not have happened,” Bandopadhyay said, referring to the April 22 terror attack in Kashmir in which 26 people, all tourists but one, were shot dead.

Earlier, the single Bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh had released the petition, since a Division Bench was already hearing issues related to the incidents in Murshidabad, and the present petitioners were alleged victims of violence in the district. The matter will be sent back to the Chief Justice of the High Court for assignment to a new bench for hearing.

Haragobinda Das and his son Chandan were allegedly hacked to death by rioters at Samserganj in Murshidabad district on April 12 during protests over the new Waqf law.

It had been stated before the single bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh that their family members came to Salt Lake, and were staying at a house there with the purpose of filing a petition before the high court.

Their lawyer had stated before the court that the door of the house was broken, and abuses were hurled at the family members of the deceased father and son by personnel from Bidhannagar police commissionerate.