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Regular-article-logo Tuesday, 23 April 2024

Political rivals rush to Jiaganj

CPM leaders visited the Pals’ residence on Saturday and those of the Congress on Sunday

Alamgir Hossain And Snehamoy Chakraborty Rampurhat Published 13.10.19, 07:58 PM
Unlike the saffron camp, the CPM or the Congress did not try to ascribe motives but echoed each other in accusing the Mamata Banerjee government of having failed to maintain law and order.

Unlike the saffron camp, the CPM or the Congress did not try to ascribe motives but echoed each other in accusing the Mamata Banerjee government of having failed to maintain law and order. Telegraph file picture

All political roads continue to lead to Jiaganj despite investigations suggesting the October 8 triple murder was not political and the family appealing against the politicisation of a “personal tragedy”.

The saffron camp’s propaganda machinery went on an overdrive, trying to attribute political — even communal — motives to the grisly murders of teacher Bandhuprakash Pal, 40, his pregnant wife Beauty, 30, and their six-year-old son Bandhuangan in the Murshidabad town.

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CPM leaders visited the Pals’ residence on Saturday and those of the Congress on Sunday. Unlike the saffron camp, the CPM or the Congress did not try to ascribe

motives but echoed each other in accusing the Mamata Banerjee government of having failed to maintain law and order.

On Sunday, a Congress team led by Behrampore MLA Manoj Chakraborty and district party president Abu Hena visited the rented home of the victims in Jiaganj and met the local officer-in-charge.

“It is very unfortunate that the three, including a pregnant mother and a six-year-old boy, were hacked to death and nobody has been arrested yet,” the Opposition chief whip in the Assembly.

A friend of Bandhuprakash who reportedly had business dealings with the teacher has been detained but there have been no arrests so far.

Chakraborty decried attempts to “hijack the tragedy for political gains”. “While we criticise the police, we must unequivocally condemn attempts by the BJP-RSS parivar to hijack this tragedy for petty political gains.”

On Sunday, Asish Banerjee, Trinamul’s Rampurhat MLA and agriculture minister, went to Seura, the home of Beauty, spoke to her parents and promised help.

“Seura is adjoining Kusumba, the home of our chief minister’s maternal uncle. She is concerned about the families and the investigation. We condemn the efforts of the saffron camp to paint this in political colours,” said Banerjee.

On Saturday, a CPM delegation had visited the Jiaganj house and Bandhuprakash’s ancestral home at Barala in Murshidabad’s Sagardighi. “We are with the family,” said Mriganka Bhattacharya, the CPM’s district committee secretary. BJP state secretary Samik Bhattacharya had gone to Jiaganj on Thursday.

On Sunday, the police released two of the three persons they had detained but continued to quiz Bandhuprakash’s friend Saubhik Banik, said to be a business partner in insurance and chain-marketing endeavours.

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