KOLKATA: The death of a former student of Aliah University Anis Khan in Howrah district has triggered a political blame game between the ruling Trinamool Congress and its rival BJP as fired salvos at each other.
Anis Khan was allegedly thrown off the rooftop of his house by four men wearing a police uniform in the wee hours of Saturday. A group of Kolkata’s cultural figures visited Anish’s house and demanded the arrests of the perpetrators. Police, however, denied that any one of them had visited the house of Anis Khan.
Anis Khan was associated with the newly formed Indian Secular Front (ISF), which was part of the alliance that fought against the Trinamool Congress and the BJP in the recent Assembly elections. Before that, he was a supporter of the CPI(M)’s students’ wing SFI. Anis had participated in a movement by students of Aliah University against the alleged poor functioning of the varsity.
The alleged murder of the student from the Muslim community triggered embarrassment for the TMC as the minority community is considered the party’s strong vote-bank.
In a complaint lodged with Amta police station in Howrah, Anis’ father Salam Khan alleged four persons, one of them in police uniform barged into his house, asked about the whereabouts of his son. "When I said Anis was not at home, they ran upstairs and I heard a sound. I found Anis lying in a pool of blood below,’’ Salam said demanding a CBI probe.
BJP’s national vice-president Dilip Ghosh said the TMC cadres were targeting their political rivals and now they are not sparing their own voters. ‘’We demand a high-level probe,’’ he said.
TMC minister Firhad Hakim had yesterday said outsiders came from outside and the culprits might be from Uttar Pradesh. ‘’This is not the time to do politics. Let the police conduct an investigation to arrest the culprits,’’ he said on Sunday.
The director-general of police ordered a probe led by an officer of the deputy superintendent of police rank.
CPI(M)’s Rajya Sabha member Bikash Bhattacharya said Anis’s murder was fall out of a plan chalked out at the highest level.