KOLKATA: Election Commission (EC) suspended three Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel after a purported video went viral showing them playing carrom inside a Trinamool office at Suri in Birbhum district, a senior official said on Sunday.“As of now, these three personnel have been removed from poll duty. We have initiated an inquiry into the incident. The authenticity of the video recording is being checked thoroughly,” the poll body official said.PTI, however, could not independently verify the authenticity of the video. This was the second such disciplinary action taken against the central forces deployed in Bengal in the run up to the to the state elections by the EC in four days for violating commission’s guidelines.On March 25, the EC transferred seven paramilitary personnel deployed on election duty in Murshidabad district out of the state for allegedly attending an iftar party in violation of model code of conductBJP candidate Jagannath Chatterjee, condemned the Suri incident, calling it “extremely reprehensible and disappointing.” “It is unclear how and where the central forces are being deployed. If the local administration or police had a role in this carrom game, strict action should be taken against them as well,” Chatterjee said.Congress Birbhum district president Sanjay Adhikari expressed similar concern, saying, “Playing carrom is not a crime, but doing so inside a political party’s office is inappropriate.”Birbhum Trinamool neta Malay Mukherjee said, “Those who were working here understand that casually interacting with TMC is not a crime. That is probably why they were talking and playing carrom.”The EC had previously issued directives prohibiting the deployed CAPF from accepting any form of hospitality or participating in social and private gatherings during poll duty while putting in place strict monitoring mechanisms, including GPS tracking and body cameras, to oversee movement and activities of the forces.
