Sinha had died of Covid-19 on Sunday after being hospitalised for three days.
Nandita Sinha, wife of TMC candidate from Khardah Assembly constituency, the late Kajal Sinha, on Wednesday filed a complaint at Khardah police station alleging that Deputy Election Commissioner Sudip Jain and other officials of the Election Commission of India (EC) were responsible for her husband’s death. Sinha had died of Covid-19 on Sunday after being hospitalised for three days. Sinha alleged that “negligent action/inaction on the part of EC” led to her husband’s “untimely death”. In her three-page complaint, she alleged that the EC “turned a blind eye towards ensuring compliance with Covid protocols, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of people, including her husband.” The EC is yet to respond to the allegations.
“The EC has deliberately ignored all evidence of the impending catastrophe, turned a blind eye towards ensuring compliance with Covid-related protocols and chosen to continue with its elaborate, eight-phased polls in West Bengal resulting in the deaths of hundreds of people, including my husband,” read a portion of the letter. She lamented that the poll body had “ignored” the TMC’s recommendation to club multiple polling phases together and also the alarms raised by the Calcutta High Court.
“The TMC had requested clubbing of polling for the sixth, seventh and eighth phases in light of the second wave of the pandemic in India. While the entire nation was struggling to cope with the coronavirus crisis, the ECI decided to carry out the Assembly Elections in West Bengal over a staggering eight phases spanning over a month: From March 27 to April 29. In comparison, elections in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry were held and completed in one day in one phase during the same period. And Assam saw voting in three phases in a span of 10 days. On April 16, before my husband contracted the coronavirus, the AITC had written to the ECI, warning about a possible “massive flare-up in Covid cases”. Nandita Sinha has also accused central paramilitary forces, of intentionally failing to take steps to ensure that Covid protocols are maintained at public political rallies/meetings.
“It is not possible for a candidate to control the crowd at any rally/meeting and it is completely within the domain of the ECI. Despite earlier deaths of candidates from different political parties, the ECI has done nothing to ensure compliance with covid protocols and has sat tight-lipped over the entire issue,” said Sinha.
“Any death is unfortunate and anyone is free to file police complaint but not conducting Election would have lead to President’s rule,” said BJP MP Arjun Singh.
Sinha further alleged that ECI is solely liable for her husband and general public’s death due to the rapid surge in coronavirus cases in West Bengal.
Reacting to Nandita Sinha’s complaint letter, TMC MP Derek O’Brien tweeted, “Enough is enough. Trinamool candidate Kajal Sinha recently died of #Covid His wife files CULPABLE HOMICIDE charge on Sudip Jain, senior official of the Election Commission of India.”
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