By IANS,
Kolkata : Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Wednesday met West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi and raised the issue of the mysterious death of a key witness in the Rizwanur Rahman death case.
Banerjee, after the meeting, told reporters that the governor had assured them that he will look into the matter.
“The lives of common people in West Bengal are not at all safe. The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) government is encouraging lawlessness and depriving them of their democratic rights. They killed one of the main witnesses to the Muslim youth Rizwanur Rahman death case, Arindam Manna, and left it beside the railway track,” Banerjee told reporters.
The body of Manna was found near the Mankundu railway station Feb 11. It bore injury marks on legs, hands and eyes.
Manna was supposed appear in the court Feb 20 as one of the key witnesses to the Rizwanur death case.
Rizwanur, a 30-year-old graphic designer working with a city-based multimedia firm, was found dead Sep 21, 2007, near the railway tracks of Kolkata’s Patipukur suburb, barely a month after his marriage with Hindu girl Priyanka, daughter of a local industrialist Ashok Todi, who was firmly opposed to the marriage.
“If all the witness to the important cases would be killed, how people would get justice from the judiciary. The state machinery is practically playing no role in securing the lives of commoners living in West Bengal,” she claimed.
“We’ve made a specific demands to the governor seeking his intervention to restore the democracy in the state. And if is not possible, we, the opposition party leaders, are ready to embrace death,” Banerjee said.
Banerjee, along with her senior party leaders and Rizwanur’s mother Keshwar Jahan, met Gandhi at his Raj Bhavan residence here.
“Two CPI-M activists, Suhrid Dutta and Debu Malik, who were convicted in Singur girl Tapasi Malik’s murder by a district court are now out on bail. We also want justice in the Tapasi Malik murder case,” Banerjee said.