The political blame game over the murder of Prasanta Roy Basunia, a BJP leader in Cooch Behar, continued even on Monday as Arun Haldar, vice-chairperson of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC), accused north Bengal development minister Udayan Guha for orchestrating the crime.
Guha has reacted to the remarks and termed such allegations as baseless.
Basunia, 30, was gunned down on Friday by some suspected miscreants at his house in Kalirpat, a locality in the Dinhata sub-division.
Basunia's mother Suchitra had filed a complaint at Dinhata police station after the incident, accusing 12 Trinamul leaders and workers of killing her son.
On Monday, Haldar reached Basunia’s place to probe the incident. He spoke with Suchitra and other family members and later blamed Guha, who is also the MLA of Dinhata, for playing a role in the murder.
“A Rajbanshi youth has been murdered here because he was a supporter of a political party that is in opposition. He was killed in broad daylight according to the instructions of the MLA of Dinhata,” said Haldar, while talking to the media.
In the past one-and-half months, the NCSC had to visit Bengal six times, he said.
“This clearly suggests the prevailing law and order situation in the state. The commission will call the investigating officer of this case with his report in Delhi,” added Haldar.
Suchitra on Monday said that they would want a CBI probe into the incident. “The police have failed to make any breakthrough so far and no one has been arrested. We want a CBI probe to know who was behind my son’s murder,” she said.
Guha, when mentioned about Haldar’s allegation, said his name was not there in the list of Trinamul leaders and workers which Suchitra had mentioned in her complaint.
“The allegation is baseless and we suspect such remarks have been made to malign me and my party. If he fails to prove his point, he should resign from the post,” Guha, who was in Siliguri on Monday, said.
Senior police officers, when contacted, said the investigation was in progress. “We are exploring different angles and gathering information from various sources,” said an officer.
