Bengal tense after 2 killed in firing
SILIGURI: Tension prevailed in Islampur area of West Bengal’s North Dinajpur district, three days after two men died in firing by unidentified persons, as relatives of the victims refused to cremate their bodies until the state government ordered a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), said police.
The bodies of Rajesh Sarkar, 19, and Tapas Barman, 21, were buried at a local ground after being handed over to the families on Saturday. Family members said they did not cremate them as they wanted to preserve the bodies for proper investigation by the CBI.
Sarkar and Barman sustained bullet injuries during an agitation at the premises of Darivit High School on Thursday. Sarkar died on the spot, while Barman succumbed to his injuries on Friday.
“The bodies will remain buried for the CBI to get a chance to investigate the wounds. If we cremate them, there will be no proof left,” said Nilkamal Sarkar, Rajesh’s father.
Villagers of Darivit are keeping round-the-clock vigil at the area where the bodies of the two students are buried.
“We have no faith in the state police. They will try to suppress the facts . We will agree to nothing less than CBI probe and until then, the bodies will remain buries,” said Ujjwal Barman, Tapas’s father.
The family members, as well as the Bengal units of BJP, RSS and ABVP have alleged that the students were killed in police firing.
District superintendent of police for North Dinajpur, Sumit Kumar, however, has denied the police opened fire.
On Sunday, two local Trinamool leaders, Islampur’s civic chief-cum legislator Kanhaialal Agarwal and Ghulam Rabbani, legislator from neighbouring Goalpokhar, went to the locality to meet the parents of the deceased as well as the agitating villagers.
They faced the wrath of the locals, who gheroad the leaders seeking promise for a CBI probe.
“If you insist on a CBI probe, I’ll inform the government about your demand,” Agarwal told the agitators.
Rabbani, however, said that whatever Agarwal said in the context of CBI probe was his personal opinion.
A team of state BJP leaders, including Mukul Roy and women’s wing chief Locket Chatterjee, also visited the place of the incident on Sunday morning and expressed solidarity with the locals.