Suvendu makes public July 21 police firing report; slams Mamata for not acting on it when she was CM

West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Monday (July 20, 2026) made public the report of Justice Susanta Chatterjee commission, which probed the police firing on July 21, 1993 which claimed the lives of 13 Youth Congress supporters.

The commission was set up by former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee after she came to power in 2011 and Mr. Adhikari said Ms. Banerjee neither implemented several key recommendations of the panel nor made its report public despite receiving it in 2014. Ms. Banerjee, a Youth Congress leader then, was also injured in the police action. The report was made public on the eve of Martyrs Day rally, when the rival factions of the Trinamool Congress will hold separate rallies in Kolkata.

“The commission recommended ₹25 lakh as compensation for the family of each person killed and ₹5 lakh for every injured person. But the previous Trinamool Congress government neither implemented these recommendations nor paid the compensation,” Mr. Adhikari said. The families of those killed received only ₹2 lakh and the injured ₹15,000, the Chief Minister alleged.

Mr. Adhikari said the former Chief Minister had always claimed to be the prime witness in the July 21 firing, but she was not asked by the commission to give her statement. The Chief Minister referred the role of the then Home Secretary Manish Gupta, who later went on to become Power Minister in the Mamata Banerjee government.

“The Mamata Banerjee dispensation also did not implement several recommendations made by the commission in its report, despite receiving it in 2014. Mr. Gupta was the Power Minister in her government then, and she was probably trying to save him,” Mr. Adhikari said.

According to the Chief Minister, the commission had summoned a total of 44 people, including former Chief Minister (late) Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the then Chief Secretary N. Krishnamurthy and the then Home Secretary, Mr. Manish Gupta, former Kolkata Police Commissioner Tushar Kanti Talukdar and CPI(M) leader Biman Bose.

“Many have used the emotions of July 21 and the blood of martyrs to amass their personal property and political fortunes, but the families of the martyrs are being completely neglected today,” Mr. Adhikari said.

‘Unnecessary, unjustified’

Reading out portions of the panel report, Mr. Adhikari said it had concluded there was no situation warranting police firing on the Youth Congress rally and described the use of force as “unnecessary, unjustified and unprovoked”. The commission found that apprehensions of protesters storming Writers’ Buildings, the then State secretariat, were “imaginary”, and the police firings at Mayo Road, Dorina Crossing and Esplanade were completely unwarranted.

Mr. Adhikari said the panel had prepared a list of 44 key witnesses, including Mr. Gupta, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, ex-Kolkata Police commissioner Mr. Tushar Talukdar, veteran Left leader Mr. Biman Bose and former Congress leader Somen Mitra, but questioned why Ms. Banerjee herself was not examined.

Mr. Adhikari said his government would subsequently table other pending reports in the Assembly, including those relating to the Comptroller and Auditor General’s observations on Cyclone Amphan relief and alleged irregularities in the procurement of medical equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic.