Jagdeep Dhankar also shared the letter on Twitter (file)
Calcutta:
West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar said Tuesday workers in the state’s opposition parties were slapped with bogus criminal cases, including drug-related offenses, and called for an “incisive audit” of all cases relating to narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances (NDPS) Act registered since 2016 by the police.
In a letter to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the governor said the involvement of innocent people in bogus criminal matters was too serious a matter to be overlooked and that offenders should be treated severely in an exemplary manner.
Mr Dhankhar wrote in the letter, which he shared on Twitter, that the rule of law and democracy can never endorse “the state apparatus-inspired involvement of innocent citizens in bogus criminal cases , including odious cases under the NDPS law “.
“I find it appropriate that there is an incisive audit of all cases falling under the NDPS law since 2016 and special attention must now be paid to all these implications in order to strengthen people’s confidence in the rule of law”, we read in the letter.
Drawing the attention of the CM to the “contributions” that political opponents are involved in bogus cases “to rule their political behavior”, Mr. Dhankhar said that this worrying scenario posed a serious threat to constitutionalism, democratic governance. and the rule of law and that all parties involved were duly accountable for acts of omission and commission. “
The governor, who is currently on a month-long tour of North Bengal, urged Ms Banerjee to sensitize the administration so that democracy and the rule of law prevail in the state.
“A firm and definitive indication given to the police and the administration to be ‘politically neutral’ will go a long way in furthering the causes of democracy,” Dhankhar said.
