Ahead of the voting in West Bengal, the chiefs of all Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) held an “unprecedented” high-level meeting in Kolkata to review the security.
During the meeting held on Saturday,
the chiefs of the CAPFs also discussed about the deployment of almost 2 lakh personnel during the upcoming two-phase assembly polls in West Bengal.
According to PTI, the meeting was followed by a “landmark” joint leadership summit at the CRPF office in Salt Lake, where the CAPF Directors General along with top officers of West Bengal Police decided to ensure an “integrated security grid” to “handle potential disruptors in coordination with local law enforcement”.
Officials were quoted saying that five Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) of CRPF, BSF, CISF, ITBP and SSB, apart from units of the Indian Reserve Battalions (IRBs) and some other state police auxiliary units, have deployed close to two lakh personnel for the West Bengal polls that will be held on April 23 and April 29.
PTI quoted a senior CAPF officer saying that this was “an unprecedented meeting held in a poll-bound state by the CAPF chiefs”.
This comes a month after seven CAPF personnel deployed on poll duty in West Bengal were sent out of the state for breaching the code of conduct by attending an Iftar party.
The incident occurred in the first week of March in the Samserganj area of Murshidabad district, a region that witnessed communal violence in April 2025.
Varying degrees of punishment have been imposed on the seven CAPF personnel by the Election Commission of India (ECI). Three personnel were sent to a seven-day paramilitary jail custody. Two others were issued a formal reprimand as a warning, while departmental proceedings have been initiated against the remaining two, with the possibility of further penalties following a full inquiry.
