Kolkata: Among the many personalities and leaders who joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the last month, one name stands out – Satyajit Bandyopadhyay. A retired Indian Police Service officer, Bandyopadhyay was at the centre of the Nandigram killings in 2007.
Bandyopadhyay was even charge-sheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the 2007 Nandigram police firing case. And Bandyopadhyay, on November 7, formally joined the ruling TMC in the presence of ministers and MPs.
This development is particularly intriguing when put in context. Let’s go back to 2007, when the TMC was in the opposition. On March 14 that year, 14 persons were killed as the state police opened fire during the anti-land acquisition movement in Nandigram.
This incident played a crucial role in toppling the Left government in West Bengal, and catapulted Mamata Banerjee to power in 2011. The TMC subsequently vowed to punish the culprits and demanded strong action against erring police officers.
Bandyopadhyay was one of the senior police officers specially deputed during the March incident. When the protesting villagers had blocked areas of Bhangabera and Tekhali villages by digging roads and erecting barricades, large platoons of police used force and tried to enter from two ends. Bandyopadhyay was leading the team which entered from Tekhali village.
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When asked a reaction on the recent development, Trinamool MP from Tamluk, Dibyendu Adhikari told The Wire that Bandyopadhyay’s induction to the party is “unfortunate”. When probed further, he said that he had raised concerns on this decision. However, the party high command ignored them. Nandigram falls under the Tamluk Lok Sabha constituency.
Another senior TMC leader, who was closely associated with the Nandigram movement, echoed Adhikari’s view and told The Wire, “This decision by the party can never be justified. I really don’t have anything to say on this.”
The Nandigram movement gave huge political capital to Banerjee and her party. How, then, will the TMC explain Bandyopadhyay’s induction?
In 2013, the Mamata Banerjee government had sent a letter to the Centre asking the CBI to ‘examine’ former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in connection with the Nandigram firings. The letter had read: “Why Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who had given instruction to send the police to Nandigram was also not examined?”
In 2017, after getting concurrence from the Bengal government, the CBI had implicated two IPS officers and a local police officer – Satyajit Bandyopadhyay (then additional SP deputed on special duty), Debashish Boral, (then additional SP Tamluk) and Shankar Roy (then officer in-charge, Nandigram).
The CBI charged the police officers with culpable homicide not amounting to murder, voluntarily causing grievous hurt with dangerous weapons and causing disappearance of evidence or providing false information. The charges attract a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
Cut to three years later – Banerjee’s two most trusted lieutenants and ministers, Partha Chatterjee and Firhad Hakim, along with several other leaders, welcomed Bandyopadhyay into the party. He was handed the party flag at the Trinamool Bhawan in Kolkata.
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In an official press release, TMC described Bandyopadhyay by saying, “a decorated police officer of over 30 years, he has worked in various capacities ensuring internal discipline, supervision of police work and running police district force. He has served as Jt. Commissioner, Armed Police, Kolkata Police, Range Deputy IG, Malda Range; and supervised policing in Malda, South Dinajpur and North Dinajpur. He has also worked as UN peace-keeping officer in Kosovo and Senior Security officer at ONGC. After his retirement, he served the government of West Bengal in the rank of IGP. He was awarded Proshongsha Padak in 2008 and the UN Peace Medal in 2002.”
This is not the first time that the TMC government has favoured Bandyopadhyay. After Bandyopadhyay retired on April 31, 2018, he was given an extension by the state government as an officer on special duty from May 1 for two years. The Wire reached out to Bandyopadhyay, but the calls went unanswered.
CPI(M) MLA from Jadavpur Sujan Chakraborty told The Wire, “We (the CPIM) had said back then a concocted malicious conspiracy was hatched against the then chief minister. Today, what we said is coming true. Mamata demanded CBI enquiry then. And now a police officer charge-sheeted by the CBI is joining her party. This is nothing but a betrayal of people who voted her to power.”
