Four months after the death of BJP worker Abhijit Sarkar in election violence, the body was handed over to his family on Thursday. On May 2, the government was killed in the post-poll violence in Kolkata’s Kankurgachi area.
Sarkar’s death had triggered a war of words between the BJP and the Trinamool Congress, amid incidents of post-poll violence. His family had refused to accept the body from the local police on the ground that they could not identify it. The family had also approached the court, questioning the first postmortem report. The court had ordered a second autopsy on July 2.
The question of identity was also heard by a five-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court, which ordered a DNA test to ascertain the identity of the body. DNA testing confirmed that those mortal remains belonged to the government. The family had earlier this week moved the Sealdah court, which directed the hospital authorities to hand over the remains to them.
Home guard slapped
Earlier in the day, BJP leader Debdutt Manjhi allegedly slapped a home guard at the NRS Medical College and Hospital for protesting the delay in the hospital’s morgue. While the Trinamool Congress leadership condemned Mr Manjhi’s behaviour, state BJP president Dilip Ghosh said, “the state government should have been slapped”.
“How inhuman can one be. Instead of paying respect to someone killed, the police were delaying handing over the body,” Mr Ghosh said.
TMC leader and MLA Tapas Roy hit back by saying that killing a police officer is a criminal offense and instead of condemning it, the state BJP president was encouraging it.
The remnants of the government were then taken to the state BJP headquarters in central Kolkata where senior party leaders including Mr. Ghosh paid tribute to him. The family members were seen arguing with the police stationed at at least two places in the city on their way to the cremation ground. Vishwajit Sarkar, brother of the deceased BJP worker, said that the police kept changing the route of the dead body and was misleading the family members.
CBI case
Sarkar’s death case was registered on August 25 by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) following the High Court’s direction to probe incidents of murder and rape during the post-poll violence. The FIR registered by the CBI under IPC section 307 (attempt to murder) is based on a complaint by the deceased’s mother, Madbi Sarkar. Hours before he was killed, Sarkar posted a video on social media saying that he feared for his life and that bombs were hurled at his house.
The CBI has so far registered more than 30 FIRs and filed charge sheets in two cases in relation to incidents of post-poll violence.
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