Calcutta HC orders CBI probe into Bengal Congress councillor’s murder – Hindustan Times

Kolkata: The Calcutta high court on Monday ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into Congress councillor Tapan Kandu’s murder in West Bengal’s Purulia district on March 13, saying the killing was linked to politics.

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A single-judge bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha questioned why allegations that police officer Sanjib Ghosh forced Kundu to join the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) after the civic polls were not probed, said lawyers who attended the hearing.

Police have claimed that ₹7 lakh was given to the killers by Kandu’s brother, Naren, who has been arrested in the case. Purulia police superintendent S Selvamurugan on Sunday called Naren the prime suspect and added the murder was the fallout of an old family dispute and has nothing to do with politics.

Narens son, Dipak, who contested the civic polls on a TMC ticket against his uncle and lost, was the first person to be arrested in the case. Congress and Kandu’s family demanded a court-monitored CBI probe accusing local TMC leaders and police of links with the murder.

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Kundu’s widow, Purnima, who moved the court seeking the CBI probe, alleged Ghosh, in charge of the Jhalda police station, pressured her husband to join TMC after the civic poll result led to a hung board at the local municipality.

Selvamurugan on Sunday denied Ghosh’s involvement citing an investigation. He added an audio clip purportedly of a telephonic conversation between Ghosh and a relative of Kundu will be examined. The clip was submitted to the court and Justice Mantha said the phones used for the supposed conversation be seized and examined.

Purnima and Congress’s district unit chief Nepal Mahato insisted there was no dispute between Kundu and Naren. “Our party and all residents of Jhalda welcome the court’s order. The CBI will unravel the truth,” said Mahato.

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Purnima thanked the high court. “A lot of influential people and TMC leaders were involved in my husband’s murder. Police were shielding them. I want the guilty to be hanged.”

TMC leader Shantanu Sen said this is not the first time a court has ordered a CBI probe though the Supreme Court once questioned the agency’s neutrality and called it a caged parrot.

Anupam Dutta, a TMC councillor, and Kandu were killed in North 24 Parganas and Purulia on March 13 days after they won the municipal polls held on February 27. Kundu was shot from a close range. Purnima has alleged the police personnel manning a security checkpoint near the murder scene did not respond to the family’s request to rush there.

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