Political Killings in Mamata's Bengal
A White Paper on Violence Against the Opposition
A documented record of 126 political killings in West Bengal under TMC rule, drawn entirely from publicly available evidence.
Overview
The families of Rajesh Sarkar and Tapas Burman did not cremate their dead. They buried them instead, preserving evidence in hope of justice that has yet to arrive. That choice captures the condition of political opposition in West Bengal under Mamata Banerjee's TMC — a state where 126 documented cases of political killing sit largely unaddressed and a third court-ordered post-mortem in one case remains unperformed.
Authors Shivam Raghuwanshi and Shubham Tiwari, working as legal scholars, examined all 126 cases using publicly available information and traced a pattern: the criminal justice system in West Bengal has been effectively dismantled for political killings. The administration, they argue, functions not as a neutral arbiter but as an instrument against the opposition. Politicians, psephologists, and social activists who have spent time on the ground in Bengal contributed their assessments to this report.
For anyone trying to understand what democratic participation costs in one of India's most contested states, this whitepaper provides the documented record.
Dictatorial tendencies must be checked timely by legal means, otherwise, things become disastrous like in today's Bengal. I see this endeavor by young legal scholars as noteworthy. Sunil Ambekar Social Activist and Thinker Violence, abuse, fear, intimidation, use of administration to target opponents is what characterizes Mamata Banerjee dispensation. Hope, people across the country understand what actually "Khela Habe" means on ground in West Bengal. Dr. Anirban Ganguly Director, Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation, New Delhi "I have been on the ground in Bengal for the past several months. People should travel to Bengal to see how dangerous is the exercise of democratic will here. Read this report to understand how democracy and rule of law have been endangered in the state." Pradeep Bhandari Psephologist, Founder, Jan Ki Baat The families of Rajesh Sarkar and Tapas Burman, instead of cremating their dead, have buried their bodies hoping for justice at some point in future. In Anup Kumar Roy's case, the courts ordered a third post-mortem, which is yet to be carried out. Political violence in the State of West Bengal has been an unfortunate element of its public life. This has carried over from when the State was being ruled by the Left Front. Allegations of the State machinery being used against the political opposition by the ruling dispensation abound. The authors of this book take a detailed look at the violence during the current ruling dispensation of Mamata Banerjee's TMC. They find that the criminal justice system has virtually been dismantled in the State in so far as political killings are concerned. The book enumerates a total of 126 cases, the information for which is available in public domain.
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