The Left will not back from its resolve to get justice for Left-leaning student activist Anis Khan who died in February under mysterious circumstances, CPM state secretary Md Salim told the bereaved family on Tuesday, as he shunned Id festivities and spent the day at Anis’s Amta home in Howrah.
Family members of Anis, an Aliah University alumnus , had alleged that the student leader was thrown to his death from the terrace of their home by four policemen.
“Earlier we used to ask the police for punishment for murder or rape. Now, in all recent incidents starting from the Bogtui carnage to Hanskhali (rape-death) or murder of a councillor in Jhalda (Purulia) and Anis Khan’s death, everywhere the police are involved. The accused will not punish the accused. So, he (Salem Khan, Anis’s father) and we have appealed to the high court demanding an unbiased and credible (delivery of) justice. The (Calcutta) High Court has to decide over how an unbiased probe can be done,” said Salim as he sat with Anis’ father.
Family members of Anis expressed gratitude to the CPM state secretary and requested people at large to take a cue from the CPM leader and join the bereaved family’s demand for justice.
“The SIT (special investigation team of the state police) has not done anything. They recently claimed that my son committed suicide. I still stick to my demand for a CBI probe under court supervision. I request all of you to be with us to get justice,” said Salem.
Anis’s mysterious death had snowballed into a major controversy with questions raised on the role of cops. Left parties and its mass organisations, along with the Congress and the ISF, launched massive movements demanding punishment for the guilty cops and asked for a CBI probe.
At the peak of the protest , DYFI leader Minakshi Mukherjee and several others were thrown behind bars after an agitation in Amta.
Minakshi, who grabbed eyeballs after she was fielded against chief minister Mamata Banerjee and BJP heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari from Nandigram in last year’s Assembly polls, visited the house of DYFI activist Maidul Middya on Monday at Kotulpur in Bankura.
Maidul was allegedly beaten to death by cops during a march to Nabanna in February last year.
Minakshi handed over Id gifts to Maidul’s family.
CPM insiders said both Salim and Minakshi wanted to send the message that the party had not forgotten Maidul or Anis.
“As the party is regaining its ground slowly in the state and elections in the recent past have hinted at a rise in Left’s vote share, the gestures are an assertion of our resolve to be with these families in every way,” said a CPM state committee member.
Though the Left failed to secure a single seat in the 2021 Assembly polls, it managed to emerge as the second force in the state in terms of vote share in the recently concluded civic polls in Bengal. It emerged as the only Opposition party to win a civic body despite the overwhelming presence of Trinamul across Bengal. The CPM won the Taherpur civic body in Nadia, while the Trinamul won every other civic bodies that went to polls recently.
In the last month’s Ballygunge bypoll, the CPM secured 30.1 per cent votes in an Assembly constituency that had a high percentage of minority voters. The BJP candidate lost her deposit in the bypoll that was won by Trinamul’s Babul Supriyo.
“The Ballygunge experience has given us confidence and we believe that people of the minority community have faith in us,” said a CPM leader and added that Salim’s gesture was also an initiative to win back the trust of those who had deserted the Left electorally since 2011.
While Salim gave company to the bereaved family members of Anis, faraway in Birbhum’s Bogtui, where 10 persons have died following a carnage that took place on March 21 in the aftermath of the death of a Trinamul leader, the enthusiasm of Id festivities remained missing on Tuesday. Family members of those killed in the massacre got together as they offered prayers in the memory of the dead.
