CPM leaders held for Singur murder
Friday, June 29, 2007
OLKATA/SINGUR: The ruling CPM on Thursday was left red faced after Singur party chief Suhrid Dutta was charged with the murder of teenager Tapasi Malik,
Dutta's arrest was the second after CBI took over the case. CBI had earlier picked up CPM activist Debu Malik and put him through a narco-analysis. Dutta and Malik will be produced in court on Friday.
CBI sleuths interrogated Dutta for seven hours and at the end, slapped charges of murder and criminal conspiracy on him after they found several inconsistencies in his statement. CBI officers smell a rat in the entire episode. "It's a sensitive issue. The investigation is on. It appears that the girl was heavily assaulted. It appears to be a part of a deeper conspiracy," special branch SP A K Sahay said.
On Thursday CBI also grilled CPM district committee member Dibakar Das and two others at the special crime branch office at Salt Lake, but let them go.
A CBI official said the agency had got "some important leads" and was confident of closing the case soon. "Our investigation has reached its final stage. We may have to raid some places and arrest some more. We will frame the chargesheet in due course," the official said.
Dutta's arrest is based on the statement made by Malik, who was sent for narco-analysis in Chandigarh. Malik was flown in to Kolkata amid tight security on Thursday. The North Bidhannagar Police cordoned off the area while Malik was taken out of the airport through a special gate before being taken to crime branch office at Salt Lake.
Local CPM leaders admit that Malik and Dutta were not on good terms though they swore by the same party. Dutta, who played a key role in gathering consent for land acquisition from the Singur farmers, is known for his bonhomie with a section of the Trinamul Congress. So when Malik tried to hush up the murder as suicide, Krishi Jami Raksha Committee members close to Dutta implicated Malik in the case. Party insiders feel that Malik might have taken revenge when his chance came. CPM state secretariat member Benoy Konar refused to see the case as a political murder.
Related post Singur Tapasi Malik(16 years) - Raped and burnt alive in Singur
posted by Resistance 6/29/2007 04:02:00 PM,
