Legacy derailed
With the West Bengal Transport Minister, Snehasish Chakraborty, announcing, in end-September, the virtual closure of trams, Kolkata’s heritage transport system is now facing an existential crisis.
The Calcutta High court has sought detailed reports from the North Dinajpur Police on its findings in the case related to the death of teacher and poll presiding officer Rajkumar Roy. It is learnt that the court has instructed the police to be present in the court with the reports on 13 July.
The mother of the deceased, Annada Roy, had recently filed a petition in the High Court, seeking CBI inquiry into the death of her son, who was found dead on 15 May, the day after the Panchayat elections in the state, for which he was the presiding officer in a station in Raiganj in North Dinajpur district.
“The High Court has instructed the district police in North Dinajpur to appear on 13 July with the detailed police investigation reports in Rajkumar Roy’s death case,” noted lawyer of the Calcutta High Court, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharjee, who is dealing with the case for Mrs Roy, said over the telephone on Thursday.
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Superintendent of Police, North Dinajpur, Anup Jaiswal, could not be contacted for comment.
Rajkumar was a resident of Sudarsonpur near Chanditola in Raiganj and an assistant teacher at the Rahatpur High Madrasa school in Karandighi. He was the presiding officer and on duty on Election Day in the Sonarpur FP School in Itahar on 14 May.
He, however, disappeared under mysterious circumstances from the polling station towards the evening that day. His mutilated body was found near railway tracks at Sonadangi in Raiganj, around 25 KM away from the polling station.
On 16 May, teachers and government employees representing different organizations, claimed the teacher was murdered and demanded the arrest of criminals behind the act. They blocked the road at Ghari More in Raiganj town and also blocked National Highway-34 at Siliguri More in protest.
The Raiganj SDO, who visited Ghari More to take stock of the situation, was allegedly assaulted. The teachers claimed that the SDO declared the incident as suicide, even though the postmortem report was yet to be had. Three teachers were later arrested on charges of assaulting the SDO.
In the meantime, the administration handed over the case to the CID, while the post-mortem report was handed over to the family. However, the family members alleged that the report was “too hazy” to understand anything. The family has demanded a new report, but in vain.
Opposition leader of the state legislative assembly and veteran Congress leader, Abdul Mannan met the family members of Rajkumar on 22 June, and assured them to stand by them in their fight for justice.
Roy’s widow given government job
Meanwhile, the state government has appointed Rajkumar’s widow, Arpita Barman, as a Group-C staff in the District Collectorate office. She is likely to join duties on Friday.
The joint secretary of the ‘Rajkumar Hatyar Bichar Chai Mancha,’ Bhaskar Bhattacharjee, said they thank the state government for providing her the job.
“We also want the family to get justice in finding out the actual cause of Rajkumar’s death,” he said.
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