TMC used 1993 police firing for political gains, hid inquiry report: CM after tabling panel findings
West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Monday (July 20, 2026) tabled in the Assembly an inquiry panel report on the 1993 police firing that
West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Monday (July 20, 2026) tabled in the Assembly an inquiry panel report on the 1993 police firing that killed 13 Youth Congress workers, and accused the TMC government of exploiting the incident for political gains and suppressing the commission's findings for two years. Tabling the Justice (retd.) Sushanta Chatterjee Commission report a day ahead of the TMC's July 21 annual rally, which commemorates those killed in the incident over three decades ago, Mr. Adhikari said the Mamata Banerjee dispensation had neither implemented several key recommendations of the panel nor made its report public despite receiving it in 2024. "The commission recommended ₹25 lakh as compensation for the family of each person killed and ₹5 lakh for every injured person. But the previous TMC 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. He also announced that families of the victims could lodge fresh FIRs and said the present BJP government would extend all legal assistance. Adhikari further said his government would pay the balance compensation recommended by the commission from the Chief Minister's Relief Fund.
"The July 21 incident was used politically. Many people have built their political and personal fortunes on it," Mr. Adhikari said, adding that while some gained political positions and enjoyed power by invoking the incident, the people of West Bengal were never told what had actually happened on that day. Without naming anyone, he alleged that some leaders had used the issue to build personal wealth, travel abroad on chartered flights and acquire properties, while the victims' families remained neglected. The July 21 Martyrs' Day traces its origins to the same day in 1993, when 13 Youth Congress workers were killed in police firing during a rally led by Mamata Banerjee, then State Youth Congress president, at Esplanade in the heart of the city during the Left Front regime. The Congress had declared the day as Martyrs' Day in memory of those killed. After Mamata Banerjee disassociated from the Congress and formed the Trinamool Congress in the late 1990s, her party gradually took over the annual observance, holding massive rallies at Dharmatala every year. Reading out portions of the commission 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".
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