Four out of every 10 police personnel injured in agitations across India are from West Bengal, reveals the latest statistics released by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D).
Out of the 1,623 police personnel injured in the country by riotous mobs in 2015, 641 (39.5%) are from West Bengal alone. Kerala comes a distant second with 264. Of the 10 policemen killed across the country by violent mobs, three were from West Bengal.
The statistics also reveal that of the total of 34 persons killed in police firing across the country, only four were from West Bengal; and just five civilians from the State were among the 572 injured by police action all over the country. In 2014, of the 858 police personnel injured across the country, 328 were from Bengal.
In terms of the number of violent agitations, West Bengal recorded far less number of incidents at 3,089, when compared to other States. The highest number of 20,450 agitations was reported in Tamil Nadu, followed by 13,089 in Punjab.
“These figures are baffling for, the Opposition is not in a position in the State to take on the police,” Tushar Talukdar, retired Commissioner of Kolkata Police, told The Hindu .
Senior officers say the police can open fire to disperse an unlawful assembly but that provision remains vague after the Calcutta High Court order in 2007. While hearing a petition on police firing at Nandigram in March 2007, the court had termed the regulation 156 of Police Regulations of Bengal, 1943, that gives them the power to use fire arms on unlawful assembly ultra vires to certain fundamental rights of the Constitution.
