KOLKATA: The noose is slowly tightening around CPI(M)’s erstwhile strongmen. Men who had helped the party flex its muscle in East Midnapore while the top brass looked the other way have been named in a chargesheet filed by the CID. CPI(M) MP Lakshman Seth along with 87 others have been charged with murder over the disappearance of six people from a Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee procession in Nandigram on November 10, 2007.
The CID has arrested 15 people so far. But their main aim is to catch the absconding CPI(M) heavyweights such as Seth. “The chargesheet was submitted after the completion of the probe into the disappearance of the six persons,” said K. Jayaraman, Deputy Inspector-General (Operations), CID. Other top leaders such as district secretariat members Ashok Guria and Amiya Sahu, Khejuri zonal committee secretary Himangshu Das as well as Seth’s aides Tapan Ghosh and Sukur Ali have also been named in the 210-page chargesheet.
Interestingly, Bengal CPI(M) bosses are not ready to distance themselves from the accused. Not only have top leaders such as Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and Biman Bose come out in open support of the accused leaders, the party has inducted even absconders into its district committee. Leaders who are on the run such as Seth, Ali, Dipak Sarkar and Ghosh have been re-elected to the district committee. Ahmed Ali, Manik Sengupta, Meghnad Bhunia and other party members who were named in the Netai case have also been included. “If there is an FIR against me, should I retire from politics? There are thousands of false cases against our party men. Accused TMC leaders are walking around scot-free. Let law take its own course, we have our own way of dealing with things,” said senior CPI(M) leader Mohd. Salim.
At least 125 arrest warrants are pending against TMC leaders who had participated in the anti-land acquisition movement of 2007. Even Sushanta Ghosh, who was named along with 39 others in connection with the killing of seven TMC workers on September 29, 2002, finds mention in the district committee.
“Comrade Sushanta and more than 100 others have been framed and put in jail. They (TMC) talk of democracy but practice partycracy,” alleged Biman Bose, State Secretary, CPI(M). Ghosh was granted bail by the Supreme Court on February 3 and was released from jail after 181 days on February 7. He was given a hero’s welcome as a sea of supporters, including senior party leaders such as Rabin Deb, Leader of Opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra, SFI and DYFI leaders, had congregated to receive the six-time Garbeta MLA. Ghosh is also set to address the annual Left Front rally at the Brigade Parade Grounds on February 19.
With panchayat polls closing in, the CPI(M) would want to retain its rural base, but by including absconders and accused in the district committee, the party seems to be working at cross purposes. “We have been saying that the state government is doing politics of vendetta. It has framed more than 6,000 CPI(M) leaders and workers, including an elected representative to the Assembly,” said Mishra.