Kolkata, October 17
Kolkata police chief, Prasun Mukherjee, two IPS officials, Gyanbant Singh (DCHQ) and Ajoy Kumar (DCDD) and two other policemen, Sukanti Chakraborty, Assistant Commissioner and Krishnendu Das, sub-inspector at the Lalbazar police headquarter were removed today from their respective posts as ‘punishment’ for their alleged involvement in the mysterious death of Rizwanur Rahaman.
The decision was announced today by Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at a crowded press conference at Writers Buildings soon after the left front committee’s unanimous decision of accepting the Calcutta High Court’s yesterday’s order for a CBI probe into the death and the court’s indictment on the policemen for their unwanted role in the marriage matter of the adult couple.
Bhattacharjee said he had declined the CBI probe into Rizwanur’s death. But now following the demand from the bereaved mother and the strong pressure from the people and different political parties and a section in the CPM, he had ultimately accepted the CBI probe. He also decided to remove the police officials from their respective posts as punishment.
Admitted Bhattacharjee, however, he did not spell out where these senior police officials would be rehabilitated. He said he had asked the chief secretary to remove these police officials immediately and their successors be replaced. He said the chief secretary and the home secretary were now finalising where these ‘indicted policemen’ would be posted. Incidentally, the police chief was the Chief Minister’s nominee in the CAB election a year back against Jagmohan Dalmia but after Prasun Mukherjee’s defeat, Bhattacharjee had attributed Dalmia’s victory “as the victory of the evil over the good”.
The Chief Minister said appropriate disciplinary actions would be taken against them after the high court’s subsequent directions on the basis of the CBI report which is to be submitted to the court within two months from now. The young graphic designer, who had married a businessman’s daughter, Priyanka Todi on August 18 which the Todi family did not approve and the businessman, Ashoke Todi allegedly influenced Lalbazar for getting back their daughter from Rizwanur’s ‘clutch’. Rizwanur’s body was found on the railway track near Dum Dum station on September 21 after the police failed to persuade the adult couple to get separated and bringing back Priyanka home.
Reacting to Bhattacharjee’s today’s decision, the former Congress(l) Chief Minister, Siddhartha Sankar Ray, who is also a renowned barrister, remarked, “he(meaning Bhattacharjee) had been forced to take a step which was not a punishment. It would have been a wise decision for the Chief Minister if these policemen had been suspended and the Ashoke Todi be arrested earlier which I myself had advised him twice in a letter sent to him which, unfortunately, the Chief Minister did not even acknowledge.
The bereaved mother and the brother, Rukhbanu also were not happy with the Chief Minister’s decisions. They demanded the suspension of the police officials as they feared they might be harassed by these policemen who could also influence the inquiry if they are posted somewhere in and around
Kolkata.
