The Kolkata High Court Thursday advised the West Bengal government to employ more police personnel, given the deaths of a father and son in the Dhulian riots in Murshidabad.

A Division Bench comprising Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury observed, “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 further observed that if there had been a sufficient number of police personnel, the situation in Dhulian could have been brought under control much earlier.

State counsel Kalyan Bandopadhyay replied, “There is a shortage of forces in the entire country. If there were sufficient forces, the (terror) incident in Pahalgam would not have happened.”

The court remarked that there should be a minimum number of personnel attached to every police station.

The Division Bench, thereafter, released the petition for a CBI probe into the murder of the father and son, who were killed in the communal violence that rocked the Murshidabad district last month.

A single-judge Bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh had earlier released the petition since a Division Bench was already hearing issues related to the incidents in Murshidabad. The matter will now be sent back to the Chief Justice of the high court so that it can be assigned to a new Bench for hearing.

Haragobinda Das and his son Chandan Das were allegedly hacked to death by rioters at Dhulian in Murshidabad district on April 12 during protests over the Waqf (Amendment) Act.