Kolkata:
Mamata Banerjee's government has been struggling with a series of disaster, most of them of its own making. Ms Banerjee made bewilderingly insensitive remarks on rapes reported recently in her state - the chief minister described them as political conspiracies spun by the Left. Today, Ms Banerjee was rebuked in court for mismanaging the investigation into the murders of two Left leaders, Pradeep Tah and Kamal Gain. Four people arrested so far are believed to be supporters of Ms Banerjee's Trinamool Congress. She had originally blamed the deaths on "infighting" within the Left.
The Calcutta High Court has ordered the state's Criminal Investigation Department or CID to study the deaths of the two men, who were killed last month in the Burdwan district. Chief Justice Jaynarayan Patel was critical of Ms Banerjee's government which said the failure to produce a post-mortem report was because of "the inefficiencies in the system" created by 34 years of governance by the Left. Ms Banerjee displaced the Left with a landslide victory in elections in May last year.
The Chief Justice said the state government has to stop blaming the system and cannot keep abdicating its responsibilities. The post-mortem report was produced by the government after the court gave it a 90-minute deadline.
Today's hearing was the result of a Public Interest Litigation or PIL filed by a Left leader.
The CID has to submit its first report on the murders on March 23 to the court.