Bomb scare forces evacuation of 6 Bengal district courts
What's the story
A bomb scare forced the evacuation and search of six district courts in West Bengal on Tuesday. The threat was triggered by emails claiming bombs were planted inside the premises. The affected courts included the City Civil and Sessions Court and Bankshall Court in Kolkata, as well as Chinsurah court (Hooghly district), Asansol and Durgapur courts (West Burdwan district), and Berhampore court (Murshidabad district).
Court order
Bomb scare comes after SC's order
The bomb scare came hours after the Supreme Court ordered the deployment of judicial officers from Odisha and Jharkhand. The deployment was in addition to 250 acting and retired judicial officers from Bengal's district courts. They were assigned to dispose of around six million disputed claims filed by voters during the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Safety measures
We are taking the matter seriously: CEO
Manoj Agarwal, the chief electoral officer of West Bengal, emphasized the state's responsibility to ensure safety and security for all judicial officers involved in the SIR exercise. State chief secretary Nandini Chakraborty, director general of police Peeyush Pandey, and Kolkata Police commissioner Supratim Sarkar said they were investigating the source of the mails. "The state government is working actively to ensure their safety and security so that the SIR exercise is not affected," the chief secretary said.