Protect citizens, maintain peace: HC gives state free hand in Beldanga
Times of India | 6 December 2025
Kolkata: Calcutta High Court on Friday directed the state to handle law-and-order in Murshidabad with a firm hand to pre-empt any communal disturbance.
"The state must act as per its stand and the law-and-order situation shall be maintained in Murshidabad strictly and lives and properties of the citizens will be protected," a division bench of acting Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Partha Sarathi Sen said, disposing of the PIL
The order followed a petition by senior counsel Bikash Bhattacharya, apprehending communal conflagration in Murshidabad's Beldanga after plans for a foundation stone-laying ceremony on Saturday for a Babri Masjid by suspended Trinamool Bharatpur MLA Humayun Kabir.
Kabir has been a thorn in Trinamool's flesh for a couple of years, often taking positions diametrically opposed to the party and issuing inflammatory statements designed to embarrass it. He has also faced disciplinary actions within Trinamool several times.
dvocate-general Kishore Datta told the bench on Friday that the state had already deployed adequate police personnel to thwart any plan to disturb peace and communal harmony and was keeping an eye on the situation.
"The state and its agencies will leave no stone unturned to ensure that law-and-order is strictly maintained," he submitted. Deputy solicitor-general Rajdeep Majumdar submitted that 19 companies of CISF were already there in the area.
The HC order also took note of the fact that "even the private respondent will maintain law-and-order and will not cause anything that may cause communal disharmony". Kabir's mosque plans come eight months after violence in Murshidabad following protests against the centre's Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025.