News Analysis India

Tag: Anis Khan

  • Charge sheet filed in student leader death case; no murder clause included: Bengal cop

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Almost four-and-a-half months after student leader Anis Khan died under mysterious circumstances, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the West Bengal Police on Monday filed a charge sheet, naming five policemen, a senior officer said.

    According to the police officer, no murder clause, however, has been included in the charge sheet that was filed before an Uluberia court near here.

    “The charge sheet has names of five policemen, including the officer-in charge of Amta police station. The accused in the case have been charged with death by negligence (Section 304A), illegal obstruction (Section 341), illegal detention (Section 342), forcible entry (Section 452), criminal conspiracy (Section 120B),” the officer said.

    Meanwhile, unhappy over the exclusion of murder charges, the student leader’s father, Salem Khan, said that he would move the Calcutta High Court.

    Salem Khan had alleged that his son was thrown off the third floor of their home by four men, including one in khaki uniform, on February 19.

    The state had ordered the formation of a special investigation team to probe the matter.

  • ‘SIT probe would yield nothing but rubbish’: Adhir questions Mamata’s silence on Anis Khan’s death

    By PTI

    KOLKATA:  Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury Saturday questioned the silence of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the mysterious death of student activist Anis Khan and said that she has forgotten the Muslims who had reposed faith in her since her party’s win in the state election.

    Chowdhury, who is also the WBPCC president, alleged that the state government is trying to hide the truth behind the incident and stop investigation into it.

    Chowdhury, who met the the student activist’s family members at their house at Amta in Howrah district during the day, claimed that the special investigating team formed by the state government to probe the death “would yield nothing but rubbish”.

    He raked up the death of Rizwanur Rahman, a graphics trainer, who according to the CBI probe was driven to commit suicide in 2007.

    “Didi (Banerjee) had spearheaded the movement following Rizwanur’s death because she had no option then. Now because the elections are over, the Muslims have been dumped by her.”

    Rizwanur was found dead near the rail track in Kolkata in Sptember 2007, a month after his marriage to the daughter of industrialist Ashok Todi.

    The Supreme Court had in March 2011 had asked CBI proceed with the case as suicide.

    The death had rocked the state and Banerjee had spearheaded a movement against the then Left Front government of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and demanded the CBI probe into it.

    “Why is the chief minister silent in this case? Why hasn’t she sent any of her ministers to meet Anis’ family members? The people of Bengal want to know the mystery behind his death.

    But it seems that the state government is trying to stop the investigation as the chief minister and the TMC government are trying to hide the truth behind the death.

    We will not let them succeed in that,” Chowdhury told reporters.

    “There will be no investigation done by the SIT. Nobody will believe that a civic police man would kill somebody unless he was ordered”.

    A civic police man was among the four police personnel who had reportedly forced their way into Anis’ house on the night of February 18 and took him to its second floor.

    His body was later found by his family members from outside the building.

    Chowdhury alleged that Anis’s family members are being given death threats to force them withdraw their demand for a CBI probe.

    He said that Congress will move the National Human Rights Commission in the case.

    “We will continue with our protests and if needed help Anis’ family to meet President Ram Nath Kovind and take the case to the National Commission for Minorities”.

    Chowdhury also was critical about the state government’s Deucha Pachami coal project and questioned its “commercial viability”.

    “Nobody is willing to invest here. This is a concealed coalfield and several hundred metres have to be dug to get coal. Nobody knows whether this will be a viable project or not,” he said.

    The the state government is yet to publish any notification with regard to the project though it has already planned to evacuate around 21,000 people from the area, he said.

    The state government is investing about Rs 35,000 crore in this project which is spread across 3.

    04 lakh acres and Banerjee has announced jobs for one member of each family that donates land, besides increasing the compensation package.

  • Who killed former Aliah University student Anis Khan? TMC, BJP trade charges

    By Express News Service

    KOLKATA: The death of a former student of Aliah University Anis Khan in Howrah district has triggered a political blame game between the ruling Trinamool Congress and its rival BJP as fired salvos at each other. 

    Anis Khan was allegedly thrown off the rooftop of his house by four men wearing a police uniform in the wee hours of Saturday. A group of Kolkata’s cultural figures visited Anish’s house and demanded the arrests of the perpetrators. Police, however, denied that any one of them had visited the house of Anis Khan.

    Anis Khan was associated with the newly formed Indian Secular Front (ISF), which was part of the alliance that fought against the Trinamool Congress and the BJP in the recent Assembly elections. Before that, he was a supporter of the CPI(M)’s students’ wing SFI. Anis had participated in a movement by students of Aliah University against the alleged poor functioning of the varsity.  

    The alleged murder of the student from the Muslim community triggered embarrassment for the TMC as the minority community is considered the party’s strong vote-bank.

    In a complaint lodged with Amta police station in Howrah, Anis’ father Salam Khan alleged four persons, one of them in police uniform barged into his house, asked about the whereabouts of his son. “When I said Anis was not at home, they ran upstairs and I heard a sound. I found Anis lying in a pool of blood below,’’ Salam said demanding a CBI probe.

    BJP’s national vice-president Dilip Ghosh said the TMC cadres were targeting their political rivals and now they are not sparing their own voters. ‘’We demand a high-level probe,’’ he said.

    TMC minister Firhad Hakim had yesterday said outsiders came from outside and the culprits might be from Uttar Pradesh. ‘’This is not the time to do politics. Let the police conduct an investigation to arrest the culprits,’’ he said on Sunday.

    The director-general of police ordered a probe led by an officer of the deputy superintendent of police rank.

    CPI(M)’s Rajya Sabha member Bikash Bhattacharya said Anis’s murder was fall out of a plan chalked out at the highest level.