Kolkata (West Bengal) [India]: The West Bengal Police on Thursday arrested a third accused in connection with the murder of Hargobind Das and his son Chandan Das, who were killed during recent violence in Murshidabad. The accused, Injamul Haq, is alleged to have tampered with CCTV evidence related to the case.
According to officials, Haq, a local resident of Suripara, was apprehended by the State Special Task Force (STF). Authorities believe he directly participated in the incident by damaging CCTV connections, potentially attempting to destroy crucial evidence.
“We constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate all incidents of violence that took place on April 11 and the following days. The SIT consists of 11 members and is headed by Syed Waquar Raza, DIG Murshidabad Range,”
said Supratim Sarkar, ADG, South Bengal.
“We had already arrested two people — Kalu Nadar and Dildar Nadar. Yesterday, the STF nabbed Injamul Haq, a resident of Suripara, adjacent to the place of the incident. Preliminary interrogation revealed that while he may not be the main perpetrator, he did attempt to disrupt the investigation by destroying and tampering with the local CCTV connections so that evidence is not available to the police.”
The father-son duo was allegedly killed by miscreants in Samserganj, a locality in the Murshidabad district.
ADG Sarkar assured that the police will pursue all those involved:
“Whoever is directly or indirectly associated with the murder of the father-son duo, we will nab everyone. We will submit an expeditious chargesheet and will ensure a quick conviction.”
Meanwhile, the Calcutta High Court on Thursday directed that central forces remain stationed in Murshidabad to ensure law and order. It also ruled that the restoration and rehabilitation of violence victims will be monitored by the court itself.
A division bench comprising Justices Soumen Sen and Raja Basu Chowdhury also directed the state government to form a committee for rehabilitation, which will include members of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), West Bengal Human Rights Commission, and the State Legal Services Authority.
“The Court took cognisance of the matter and pressed on 4 issues. The court will look into the restoration and rehabilitation of victims. The state government has to manage their housing till they (violence victims) get their homes,”
said Advocate Priyanka Tibrewal, the petitioner in the case.
“It has been ordered to set up a committee which will have a member of the National Human Rights Commission, State Human Rights Commission, and the committee will take all the problems of the victims and the court will monitor it.”
The next hearing is scheduled for Monday.
Advocate Kalyan Banerjee, representing the state, added:
“A team of one member each from National Human Rights Commission, State Human Rights Commission and State Legal Services Authority will be set up. They will visit the site and later submit the report to the court. The view of the rehabilitation scheme remains with the state.”
“They asked for NIA, CBI and full authority to central forces, but it was not given.”
Earlier, the Calcutta High Court had ordered the deployment of central forces in the wake of large-scale post-poll violence in Murshidabad.