By IANS
Kolkata : A day after Kolkata witnessed violence over the mysterious death of a Muslim youth who was harassed for marrying a rich Hindu girl, the Kolkata police Sunday defended their role in the episode, dubbing the death a suicide even as the victim’s family demanded a fair probe.
While Kolkata Police Commissioner Prasun Mukherjee told journalists that “marriage is not an end in itself but a beginning”, he ducked vital questions on Rizwanur Rehman’s death and the alleged intimidating by some senior cops since August.
Rehman’s family demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the death.
“We want an independent inquiry. We don’t believe this is a suicide since he had faith in the Indian constitution and was consulting a rights body and lawyers to get back his wife who was forced to leave him,” said Rukbanur, brother of the 30-year-old graphics designer and teacher at an Arena Multimedia centre whose body was found with the head smashed beside a railway track Friday.
Rehman had married 26-year-old Priyanka Todi, daughter of influential industrialist Ashok Todi, under the Special Marriage Act in August 2007.
However, he had alleged of receiving threatening calls and harassments by top police officials who wanted him to send back Priyanka to her parents.
“Police did not intimidate anyone. This is a case of suicide,” Mukherjee told reporters even before the post-mortem report was available.
Mukherjee went on to say: “A girl raised by her parents for 26 years suddenly leaves and starts staying with someone. Though what has happened is unfortunate, try to understand the other side also.
“Marriage is not an end in itself but a beginning. The Kolkata police would have only ensured that her parents are satisfied,” said Mukherjee as he went on to add rather blatantly: “She was a rich girl from a Marwari family while the boy was Muslim and from a middle-class background.”
“We are working professionally,” he said as he left the press conference in a huff refusing to take the bouncers from the reporters.
While he admitted police knew about the marriage, Left Front chairman Biman Bose acted hastily to claim that police were not aware of the marriage, giving the episode a political tinge as the rival Trinamool Congress has already demanded a CBI probe into the death.
The victim’s family said Rehman was asked by deputy commissioner of detective department Ajay Kumar to send back the girl to her parents for a week or else face arrest on charges of theft slapped by the girl’s family.
“Even Priyanka had protested when she was asked to go back to her parents,” Rehman’s brother said.
A lawyer whom Rehman was consulting said the latter’s mobile phone was busy even after the time of his death as established by the cops.
Police also could not answer why the deceased, who lived near a railway track, would go to north Kolkata’s Dum Dum area and commit suicide on the tracks.
On Saturday, a mob went on a rampage in Park Circus area and set a police vehicle on fire when a rumour spread that Rehman’s body had gone missing from the police morgue.
More than a dozen people, including cops, were injured.
Meanwhile, Sujato Bhadro of the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR), who was approached by Rehman after alleged threat calls from police, said: “The police are telling complete lies. They acted like moral police and they had no business to interfere in a legal marriage.”
Bhadra said a letter by Rehman clearly mentioned the names of top cops like Ajay Kumar, Gyanwant Singh (deputy commissioner of police headquarters) and police officer Sukanta Chakraborty as the ones who harassed him.
“Sadiq, a witness to their marriage, was also threatened by police,” Bhadro said.
While the railway police filed a case as the death was seen as result of being hit by a train, Rehman’s family alleged that he had been threatened by his in-laws since his wedding.
“My brother was also threatened several times by personnel from the Karaya police station and senior police officials from Lal Bazar, the headquarters of the Kolkata police. We suspect that there is some foul play in my brother’s death,” said Rukbanur at their Tiljala Lane house.
The house of the Todis in Salt Lake remained locked for the second consecutive day Sunday. Rehman was buried Saturday.