Kolkata: The report by a three-member committee appointed by the Calcutta High Court has revealed how Hindus were targeted at the behest of Trinamool Congress leaders in Murshidabad district in West Bengal, leading to three deaths and widespread destruction of property. The violence in Murshidabad district broke out on April 8 in areas like Dhulian, Suti, and Samserganj over protests against the newly promulgated Waqf (Amendment) Act.
The report by the committee set up by the Calcutta High Court for identification and rehabilitation of victims of anti-Waqf protests-related violence in Murshidabad district in April was submitted in a sealed envelope to the High Court bench of Justices Soumen Sen and Raja Basu Chowdhury.
It reveals damning details of how Hindus were targeted and says that the local police were “inactive and absent” during the incidents at Dhulian on April 11.
It also mentions that a local councillor directed the attacks at Dhulian town in Murshidabad. The report, submitted to the High Court by the three-member committee, stated that a garments mall in Dhulian was also looted. Noting that the “main attack” occurred on the afternoon of April 11, the report said: “Local police were completely inactive and absent.”
The panel, comprising Joginder Singh, Registrar, (Law), National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Satya Arnab Ghosal, member secretary, West Bengal Legal Services Authority (WBLSA) and Saugata Chakraborty, Registrar, WBJS, submitted the report to the High Court last week after visiting the affected areas and speaking to the victims as directed by the Division Bench hearing the matter.
The report reveals that all the attacks were carried out on Friday, April 11, from 2 PM onwards, allegedly under instructions from local councillor Mehbub Alam. The police and administration remained inactive. Mehbub Alam reportedly arrived at the scene with the miscreants and personally oversaw the destruction of homes. The local MLA is said to have supervised the vandalism to ensure it was being executed as intended. After observing the destruction alongside the attackers, he left the scene.
A man named Amirul Islam allegedly identified houses that had not yet been targeted and directed the miscreants to those locations, which were then set ablaze.
The report records the victims’ testimony about how the police remained inactive even as more than 100 houses were looted and set on fire and rendered “completely inhabitable”. Valuables worth lakhs—including jewellery, cash, furniture, and livestock—were looted.
During the violence in Betbona, calls were made to the police on Friday at 4 PM and again on Saturday at 4 PM. No calls were answered.
The report also records how more than 500 people who had fled and had taken shelter in neighbouring Malda district were forced to return their burnt-out homes by the police.
One Amirchand Mondal stated that he and his family were locked inside their home, which was then doused with petrol in an attempt to set it on fire. They were rescued by the BSF.
The victims also detailed that the miscreants shut off all water sources near their homes so that fires could not be extinguished. Women’s clothes were deliberately burned so they had nothing left to wear, they alleged. The police station is located just 300 meters from where all of these incidents occurred, the report mentioned.
The Bharatiya Janata Party immediately launched a multi-pronged attack on the Trinamool Congress.
BJP Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi drew parallels between the Pahalgam massacre where 26 Hindu males were systematically identified and killed and Murshidabad, where a Hindu father and son were killed and a watch was kept to ensure that they were indeed dead.
“If Hindus were selectively killed in Pahalgam, attempts were made in Murshidabad to selectively kill Hindus and destroy their houses. Violence was carried out against the Hindus in a well-planned manner at the behest of Trinamool leaders,” he said.
Bengal BJP chief and Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar alleged that there were attempts to molest girls during the violence and demanded an apology from the Chief Minister.
“Mamata Banerjee tried to save these rioters. She lied and misled the people of the state by blaming outsiders for the violence but the report says otherwise. She should apologise to the people of the state for lying,” Majumdar said.
Majumdar also said that the Trinamool councillor, mentioned in the report, did not try to save the Hindus. “His name (Mehboob Alam) was mentioned by the local residents, those whose houses were vandalised, and temples were demolished,” he said.
Senior BJP leader Amit Malviya said: “This may be the most damning indictment yet of the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC. The report on the Murshidabad riots squarely blames her party—and its elected representatives, including the local councillor and MLA—for abetting the violence and doing nothing to control the situation. Their acts of commission and omission emboldened the police and civil administration to remain passive as Hindu homes burned.”
“What makes this report even more significant is its source: a committee appointed by the Calcutta High Court, comprising a member of the NHRC and officials from the West Bengal Legal and Judicial Services. It carries institutional weight and credibility. This entirely demolishes Mamata Banerjee’s oft-repeated claim that ‘outsiders’ were responsible. The unvarnished truth is this: the Murshidabad riots were orchestrated by the TMC to engineer demographic attrition of Hindus in this sensitive border district. Mamata Banerjee is a blight on Bengal’s legacy. Her politics violates the very spirit behind the creation of West Bengal—a homeland for Bengali Hindus, not a playground for vote-bank violence,” he wrote on social media site X.
Hitting back, senior Trinamool leader Kunal Ghosh stood by the party’s stand that outsiders were brought from Bangladesh to foment trouble in Murshidabad.
“Investigation is still on and all conspiracies are being looked at. Arrests are happening and compensation is given (to victims),” Ghosh said.
“After Operation Sindoor, we are playing the role of a responsible Opposition. But the BJP is politicising the Murshidabad violence,” he further said.
BJP national spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said: “India is perhaps the only country where the majority community faces communal persecution. This happens because dangerous elements receive political protection and encouragement. That’s what fuels such horrific incidents.”
Kaustav Bagchi, BJP leader and advocate on whose petition the fact-finding team was sent, told The Sunday Guardian: “Mamata Banerjee has turned West Bengal into a Taliban state.” He alleged that under Mamata Banerjee’s rule, Bengal was being governed not by constitutional principles but by terror and appeasement. “The state is now under the grip of a Modern Jinnah—Mamata Banerjee. When victims’ cries are ignored and murderers flourish under political protection, it becomes evident the system has collapsed,” he said.
Trinamool has been refuting all such allegations.