By IANS
Kolkata : City based industrialist Ashok Todi, whose son-in-law Rizwanur Rahman died mysteriously here Sep 21, said his daughter Priyanka’s marriage with the graphic designer had come as a shock to him.
“My daughter’s marriage with Rizwanur came as a shock to me. I was taking time to accept the fact,” he told television news channel, CNN-IBN Sunday.
Todi, owner of Lux Cozi Hoseiry group, said he was trying to talk to his daughter to find a solution to it.
He admitted that the marriage was unacceptable to him and his family. “We could not accept the marriage immediately,” he said.
The body of Rizwanur, 30, was found with his head smashed near a railway track barely a month after his marriage.
Breaking her silence for the first time since her husband’s death three months back, Priyanka Saturday blamed her brother-in-law Rukbanur and his friend Pappu for the circumstances leading up to the tragedy.
Priyanka alleged Rukbanur had even tried to force her husband to sign the divorce papers. “I learnt that on Sep 19, Pappu took money from my uncle to make Rizwanur sign divorce papers. And on the same night, Rukbanur had turned against Rizwanur and tried to force him to sign the divorce papers,” she told a television channel.
Confirming what his daughter had said, Todi said, “Pappu demanded money for himself and the Rehman family to separate Rizwanur and Priyanka. We gave him money. I have told CBI how much money we gave him.”
“We did not want a divorce. But Pappu proposed this and we wanted to check what the Rehman family wanted,” he said, “So we gave him the go ahead for his proposal.”
It is rumoured Ashok Todi, Priyanka’s father, had paid Rs 1.1 million to Pappu, to separate Rizwanur and Priyanka.
Responding to allegations from Rizwanur’s family that Priyanka’s statements were a ploy to save her family, Todi said, “Priyanka is slowly trying to get back to normal.”
Kishwar Jahan, mother of Rizwanur Rahman, Sunday demanded a polygraph test on her daughter-in-law to ascertain the veracity of her statements.
A pained Kishwar said, “I fail to understand how Priyanka can utter such a lie. I think she should be subjected to a polygraph test to ascertain the veracity of her statements. If she has the courage, she should make such statements in front of me.”