The father of a Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) activist has been beaten to death in Bankura, in India’s West Bengal state. Ashutosh Ranka, a senior leader of India’s Cockroach Janata Party, has given the state government a 10-day deadline to arrest those responsible. He is currently staying in Bankura district to press for a proper investigation and keep pressure on local police.
Ranka has also demanded a court-supervised, impartial investigation into the entire incident, full security for the victim’s family, and the establishment of an international-standard school in the victim’s memory. Police say eight people have already been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the killing. The family alleges that the CJP activist’s elderly father was beaten to death.
West Bengal has seen some political tension in the wake of the killings of several prominent individuals over the past weekend. Saturday night, veteran Congress leader Anisur Rahman, 54, and his 23-year-old son, Abu Sufiyan, were shot dead in Nadia district.
The family alleges that local Trinamool Congress leadership was behind the double killing. Sunday, police arrested Trinamool’s Harinagar panchayat chief, Fatema Bibi, along with her close associates Saheb Ali Mondal and Mithu Sheikh, in connection with the case. At around the same time, amid a wave of violent incidents across various districts of the state, former West Bengal Legislative Assembly Deputy Speaker Ashish Bandyopadhyay died by suicide.
These four deaths have thrown West Bengal politics into turmoil. The ruling BJP naturally cannot escape responsibility for the killings, since it holds power in the state. But the opposition has not been able to put much pressure on the government, as the main opposition, the Mamata-aligned Trinamool Congress, has grown extremely weak.
The remaining three opposition forces, the CPI(M)-led Left Front, Congress, and the Rittobrata-aligned faction of Trinamool, have also yet to get their houses in order. As a result, pressure on the BJP has not increased significantly. Even so, the string of killings has sparked intense reaction on social media.
The Bankura incident
Cockroach Janata Party leader Ashutosh Ranka traveled from Delhi with colleagues to Karishunda village in Indas and met with the family of Mohammad Mafik, who died at Burdwan Medical College and Hospital.
Mafik died two days after being brutally beaten at his own home. The incident sparked outrage among local residents. The reason for Ranka’s visit and the resulting movement is that Mafik’s son, Abdul Hafiz, is a CJP member; he took an active part in CJP’s protest programs while in Delhi.
Ranka said all those responsible must be arrested within 10 days and given strict punishment under the appropriate legal provisions, and called for a court-monitored, impartial investigation into the conduct of Indas police station’s officers as well, saying police had failed to properly stand by the family.
Mafik’s family has refused the state government’s financial compensation, and his son, Abdul Hafiz, has instead demanded the establishment of an international-standard school in his father’s memory.
In Hafiz’s words, building such a school by expanding access to education would be the truest tribute to his father. Backing that demand, CJP leader Ranka announced the organization would provide Hafiz with financial support and launch a statewide “Fix the Schools” movement, while warning that if the accused were not arrested within the deadline, they would surround the district administrative building in protest.
The Nadia district incident
Meanwhile, in the Nadia double-murder case, police produced the arrested Trinamool leader and two others before court after medical examinations, seeking custody. The court granted police nine days’ remand.
Around 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Congress’s Nadia district secretary, Anisur Rahman, was returning home by car with his son, lawyer Abu Sufiyan. Near a railway underpass, their car was stopped and sprayed with indiscriminate gunfire; they were then dragged out of the vehicle and hacked to death with sharp weapons.
Police arrested three people early in the investigation, suggesting the double killing was the result of a premeditated political conspiracy. Krishnanagar police district Superintendent Atul V confirmed that arrest warrants had been issued for the three.
He said, however, that it would be premature to comment now on the exact motive behind the brutal killing or on who else might be involved.
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বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report