Judicial officers back to work under CAPF watch

Kolkata: The seven judicial officers who were gheraoed at Malda's Kaliachak on Wednesday afternoon — a siege that continued till they were rescued at midnight — returned to work on Thursday, at a different location and under central force protection.Instead of the Kaliachak-II BDO office, where a violent mob attacked them during their rescue, the officers performed their duties from a guesthouse 32 km away.On Wednesday, villagers gathered at the BDO office since afternoon to protest the deletion of their names during adjudication. The villagers repeatedly demanded to speak with the judges, as they felt their names had been removed without rhyme or reason.A woman judicial officer caught up in the gherao said the national highway in front of the BDO office was blocked and that police took no measure to remove the agitators. The judge added that while the locals wanted to speak with them, they were not holding hearing sessions. She said they were acting according to Supreme Court guidelines and had been tasked only with conducting the adjudication."As judicial officers, we have no scope for public interaction, so we refused to meet the villagers. What we are doing is an executive function following the SC directive," the judge said. She added: "It was a nightmare... I thank God that we are still alive. It was a failure of the administration and our safety protocols were completely ignored."The officer said that "the gherao continued for over eight hours, and the administration allowed the mob to swell". "There was no speedy action, despite our requests. We called the higher authorities for relief, but for hours no one came to help us. I heard that relief arrived only after Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Sujoy Paul summoned the DGP and home secretary to his residence around midnight; only then did the police act.""I reached home well past 12.30 am. My head was reeling and I was about to faint from palpitations. I was so strained that even after returning home, I could not eat or sleep. I was just thinking that if something happened to me, who would take care of my children?" she said."We contacted the CEO, DM and SP but no respite came for hours and we were not allowed to have food or water. The police perhaps feared they might have to open fire, leading to bloodshed, so they just kept waiting," the judge said."When the police ultimately managed to rescue us and lead us out, our vehicles were attacked. They pelted us with stones and attacked us with bamboo sticks. I was very unnerved by this sudden turn of events and a car in the convoy was vandalised. I do not want to go back to that BDO office and all seven of us have conveyed that we do not want to be at Kaliachak-II anymore," the officer added.