West Bengal Police debunks Suvendu's claim of 'suspicious Kashmiris' in state

Amidst numerous reports of Kashmiris across India being harrassed and abused in the wake of the , West Bengal Police on Thursday dismissed allegations made by the state's leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari, who claimed that were involved in suspicious activities in Baruipur in South 24 Parganas district.

Police clarified that the individuals in question are engineers from Madhya Pradesh exploring business opportunities in the state.

In an official statement released on social media, Baruipur Police District said the two persons — one Hindu and one Muslim — had not installed a 'high-performance wireless network system' on the terrace of their rented flat in Baruipur, as claimed by Adhikari, and dismissed the claim of any suspicious activities.

"The two individuals, one of them a Hindu and the other a Muslim, both from Madhya Pradesh, rented a flat in Baruipur about three weeks ago. Engineers by profession, they were exploring business opportunities in pisciculture in West Bengal through a local friend. There is a simple Jiofibre network in their flat which is used by numerous citizens, with nothing suspicious about it," Baruipur Police clarified on X.

The police clarification came after Adhikari posted a photo of a wireless network system disc on X, alleging that two persons from Kashmir were living in Baruipur and engaging in "suspicious" activities. He also demanded an investigation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

"It is unfortunate that some people choose to disseminate such inaccurate and potentially inciteful information through social media, instead of communicating it to a state or central agency. We expect citizens to exercise restraint and responsibility while using public platforms without jumping to any conclusions," police said.

They further emphasised the importance of proper channels for reporting suspicious activity. "Information of this kind shared through social media handles defeats the very purpose. It also merits mention that any kind of public insinuation against any individual without verifying the facts is legally punishable," the statement added.

True to form, however, Adhikari — who has been hyper-vocal over the deaths of three tourists from West Bengal in Tuesday's Pahalgam terror attack and made widely publicised efforts to extract as much mileage as possible from the death of Florida-based Bitan Adhikari (no relation) in particular — has doubled down on his earlier post and come up with a fresh one countering the police claims.

Among the news video clips going viral across Bengal since yesterday are a few showing Adhikari with Bitan's wife and young child at Kolkata airport, screaming at the visibly distressed woman to tell everyone that her husband was killed "for being Hindu".

With PTI inputs