Kolkata, 18 April (H.S.) : A special court on Saturday granted default bail to 15 of the 35 accused in the Beldanga violence case in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district. The relief was granted after the investigating agency failed to file a chargesheet against them within 90 days from the date of their arrest.

The court also imposed certain conditions while granting bail to the accused.

The violence had erupted earlier this year after the death of a migrant worker from Beldanga in neighbouring Jharkhand. Tension escalated after the worker’s body was brought back to Beldanga from Jharkhand.

Local protesters had alleged that the worker was lynched due to religious and linguistic reasons. In protest, road and railway blockades were organised in the area.

When police attempted to remove the blockade, clashes broke out between protesters and security personnel. Several journalists were also attacked during the unrest, with many sustaining injuries.

Later, Jharkhand Police, citing the postmortem report, stated that the migrant worker’s death was a case of suicide.

The absence of local Member of Parliament Yusuf Pathan during the violence had drawn sharp criticism from the opposition, which alleged that he was neither present in the constituency nor in the state at the time of the unrest.

Subsequently, Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari moved the Calcutta High Court seeking deployment of Central Armed Police Forces and transfer of the investigation to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

The matter later reached the Supreme Court, which observed that the Union Home Ministry could ask the NIA to investigate the case if it considered it necessary.

Following this, the National Investigation Agency took over the probe into the matter.

Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh