By IANS,
Kolkata : Hundreds of people Sunday marched in a peace rally here to pay tribute to Rizwanur Rahman, who died under mysterious circumstances a year ago after marrying industrialist Ashok Todi’s daughter Priyanka.
Rahman’s mother Keshwar Jahan, elder brother Rukbanur Rahman and several members of civil society participated in the rally that started from Park Circus in south Kolkata and converged at Tiljala – a small eastern Kolkata pocket, where Rahman lived with his mother.
Mamata Banerjee, chief of West Bengal’s principal opposition party Trinamool Congress, also took part in the rally.
“The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) should file a charge sheet against the seven accused, including Rahman’s father-in-law Ashok Todi and four city police officers, as soon as possible. Justice has been long delayed due to the negligence of the state government,” Banerjee said while walking in the procession.
She said her party would soon open a health clinic and a computer training school in the Tiljala area.
Rahman, a 30-year-old graphic designer with a multimedia firm, was found dead Sep 21 last year by the railway tracks at Patipukur near Dum Dum, barely a month after his inter-religious marriage.
The death led to a civil society outcry for justice, with many accusing the ruling Left Front government in West Bengal of shielding “tainted” policemen involved in the case.
While friends and relatives of Rahman participated in the rally with candles and his posters, the youth’s widow Priyanka flew to London Sunday morning with her family.
“Priyanka has gone to London for her sister Neha’s admission at Cardiff University. It was pre-settled and has nothing to do with any particular date or event,” Todi’s lawyer Deep Narayan Mitra told reporters here.
In the memory of their adored teacher, students at a city-based computer training institute where Rahman used to teach graphics designing made a short documentary film.
An altar was also set up in the name of Rahman at Lohapole area near Tiljala. People also hung festoons with Rahman’s photographs across the locality with the banner “His crime, he loved someone”.
The CBI had earlier concluded that Rahman was driven to commit suicide.