Kolkata, Feb 18 (IANS): The opposition parties in West Bengal have started questioning the credibility of the state police after a victim in Sandeshkhali recorded her statement before the judicial magistrate instead of the cops.

It was on the basis of her statement that local Trinamool Congress leader Shibu Hazra was arrested on Saturday.

The opposition parties have claimed that the development is a concrete example of the kind of reliability the state police have in the eyes of common people in West Bengal.

Senior state BJP leader and the former national secretary of the party, Rahul Sinha said the protesting women in Sandeshkhali have claimed that that whenever they used to go to the police with complaints against the local Trinamool Congress leaders, the cops would advise them to go to the accused persons only for remission.

“The police never accepted FIRs. Now pushed to the walls the victim woman was forced to give the secret confession to the judicial magistrate,” Sinha said.

CPI(M) central committee member Dr Sujan Chakraborty pointed out that when someone decides to give a secret confession to anyone who is in the system of justice but not the police, it becomes clear that the common people have lost faith in the police.

“The secret confession to the judicial magistrate has been prompted by the past experiences of the local people of Sandeshkhali after they approached the local police for remission in the past,” he said.

However, there has not been any counter-reaction to these comments from the ruling Trinamool Congress so far.

The fact that local people of Sandeshkhali are losing faith in police became evident on Saturday when a local woman, whose child was snatched and flung away by some masked goons in police uniform, told the West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights (WBCPCR) and the media that she didn’t go to the police for help after the incident as she doesn’t trust the local cops.