“33 BLOs dead, silence on hate crime?” Kapil Sibal flags Chakma murder, targets centre

Rajya Sabha MP and senior advocate Kapil Sibal on Monday launched a sharp attack on the Centre, questioning its priorities over the deaths of booth-level officers (BLOs) during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and its response to the killing of a Tripura-based student in Uttarakhand.

Referring to the latest death of a BLO in West Bengal’s Bankura district, Sibal said the number of such deaths linked to the ongoing revision exercise had risen to 33 nationwide. “Yet another suicide by a Bengal BLO. Total pan-India: 33. If one alleged ‘ghuspetia’ (infiltrator) is not OK, but 33 BLOs die, is that OK?” he asked in a post on X, directly questioning the Centre’s stance on the SIR exercise.

Sibal’s remarks followed the death of Haradhan Mandal, a schoolteacher serving as a BLO, whose body was found on Sunday. Police said a suicide note pointed to his inability to cope with work-related pressure.

The senior Congress leader also targeted the Centre over the killing of Angel Chakma, a Tripura-based youth who was assaulted in Dehradun earlier this month and later died. Terming the incident a “hate crime,” Sibal accused the government of silence and inaction.

“Angel Chakma’s murder. A shocking display of a hate crime, of bigotry, of the silence of our leaders in Government who, by their inaction, are complicit,” Sibal said, calling on Union Home Minister Amit Shah to speak up against hate crimes.

While police have arrested five people in the Chakma murder case and state governments have assured action, Sibal said the Centre must address what he described as a broader failure mounting pressure on grassroots election officials and an inadequate response to violence driven by hate.

Through his remarks, Sibal sought accountability from the Union government, questioning whether its approach to electoral roll revision and hate crimes reflected the priorities it claimed to uphold.