The Election Commission of India suspended West Bengal’s Director Security from his post, in a major reshuffle on Sunday. The reason behind the suspension was the official’s connection with the major lapse of security that resulted in the alleged ‘attack’ on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram.
Suspending the SP and DM of East Medinipur, it also directed the Chief Secretary and DGP to identify security personnel who ‘failed in their duties to protect the CM over the next three days.
Furthermore, the Election Commission appointed Former DGP Intelligence Punjab, Anil Kumar Sharma as Special Police Observer for the West Bengal polls. As Special Police Observer, Anil Kumar Sharma is the second Special Police Observer, in addition to Vivek Dube, to observe the conduct of elections in West Bengal.
On Wednesday, hours after filing her nomination from Nandigram, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee abruptly left her on-ground campaign claiming that she was attacked by 4-5 people while she was returning after performing puja in a temple at Barulia Bazar in Nandigram. There, she had also claimed that no security official was present when she was attacked. Earlier in the day, the ECI ruled out the possibility of Mamata’s injury being an ‘attack’ and said that details relating to this will be given in the due course.
