A parliamentary standing committee has agreed to discuss the role of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) across India after Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien submitted a three-page letter alleging police excesses and brutal conduct involving the forces in West Bengal, according to a report by Anandabazar.
O’Brien, a member of the standing committee attached to the Union Home Ministry and the Trinamool Congress’s joint general secretary, handed the letter to committee chairman Radhamohan Agarwal at a meeting on Thursday. The letter was titled “The role of the CAPF in ongoing police atrocities and brutal behaviour in West Bengal”, the report said.
According to political sources cited by Anandabazar, Agarwal read out two pages of the letter before the committee began its scheduled discussions on child abuse and the situation in the north-eastern region. Almost all members agreed that the issue required discussion, including BJP members Neeraj Shekhar and Tarun Chugh. The committee decided that the subject would be taken up at a subsequent meeting.
The proposed discussion will not be limited to West Bengal or any single state. Instead, the committee is expected to examine the role of the Central Armed Police Forces in the national context. The CAPF comes under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, making the committee responsible for that ministry a relevant parliamentary forum for examining its deployment and conduct.
The report said BJP state president and committee member Shamik Bhattacharya objected that a discussion on the subject should also include allegations of police excesses during the 2021 West Bengal Assembly election and the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Agarwal reportedly told him that he would have an opportunity to present his position if those issues were discussed.
The letter is described in the report as critical of the BJP-led government and is also said to refer to the alleged involvement of some BJP leaders. These claims are political allegations contained in the letter and have not been independently established in the supplied report.
O’Brien’s letter reportedly stated that 340,000 Central Armed Police personnel were deployed across India during the last Lok Sabha election, while 240,000 personnel were deployed in West Bengal alone for the 2026 Assembly election. The letter described the comparison as disproportionate and raised questions about the scale and purpose of central-force deployment during elections.
It also reportedly detailed allegations of violence across West Bengal after 4 May 2026, with attacks allegedly targeting Trinamool Congress members. O’Brien is said to have written that elected MPs witnessed what he described as a “terrible” situation in which women and children were also subjected to abuse. The supplied report does not provide the committee’s independent findings on these allegations.
The committee’s next meeting on the issue is expected to examine the role of the forces nationally rather than immediately adjudicate the allegations relating to West Bengal. The date and agenda for that discussion were not specified in the report.
