1993 firing: Mamata Banerjee’s statement was not recorded in probe report, says CM Adhikari

Kolkata, July 20 (SocialNews.XYZ) The statement of former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was not recorded in the report of the Justice Susanta Chatterjee (Retired) Commission, which the previous Trinamool Congress government constituted to probe the deaths of 13 Youth Congress workers in police firing during a protest rally on July 21, 1993, said Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari.

CM Adhikari tabled the Justice Susanta Chatterjee (Retired) Commission report, which was not made public during the last 15 years of the Trinamool Congress regime from 2011 to 2026, on the floor of the West Bengal Assembly on Monday and informed that even Mamata Banerjee did not appear before the Commission to get her statements recorded in the matter.

Incidentally, the protest rally over which the police firing took place on July 21, 1993, was led by Mamata Banerjee, who was then associated with the Congress as the Youth Congress President in West Bengal and the Congress Lok Sabha MP from Kolkata (Dakshin) Constituency.

Late Jyoti Basu was the Chief Minister of the ruling Left Front government in West Bengal then, and the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Manish Gupta was the West Bengal Home Secretary then.

However, Gupta joined the Trinamool Congress before the 2011 Assembly elections, contested as a party candidate and became a member of the Mamata Banerjee-led cabinet first and subsequently a Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member. Recently, he had announced his decision to quit politics.

CM Adhikari informed the House that Mamata Banerjee’s predecessor and Late Jyoti Basu’s successor as the West Bengal Chief Minister, Late Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, appeared before the Commission and got his statements recorded there.

After tabling the report on the floor of the House, CM Adhikari also claimed that the police or the state secretariat during the previous Mamata Banerjee-led regime did not submit the relevant documents in the matter to the Commission.

“A total of 44 people were summoned to take testimony. Among them were former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and several police officers. But Mamata Banerjee, who was supposed to be the main witness in the incident, was not called by the Commission! The former Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Late Pankaj Banerjee, was summoned. But he refused to give testimony. Pankaj Banerjee stated, Mamata Banerjee gave Manish Gupta, who was responsible for the shooting incident as the then Home Secretary, a prime berth in her cabinet, giving testimony was useless,” CM Adhikari said.

He said the previous Mamata Banerjee government also did not adhere to the recommendation of the Justice Susanta Chatterjee (Retired) Commission regarding the compensation for those killed in police firing.

“No information or documents were handed over to the Commission from the then state secretariat of Writers’ Buildings. The Commission also did not get the truth about the deaths in police firing. The Commission recommended a compensation of Rs 25 lakh to the families of the 12 deceased who were identified and Rs 12 lakh for the injured. The previous Mamata Banerjee-led government did not accept the recommendation of the Commission on compensation. You gave only Rs 2,00,000 to the family of the deceased persons and Rs 15,000 to the injured ones. You should be ashamed. I am asking families of the injured or deceased to file a fresh FIR in the matter. Our government will give that opportunity. And if you want compensation as recommended by the commission, we will also give that money from the Chief Minister's Relief Fund,” CM Adhikari added.

Source: IANS