By IANS,
Kolkata : CPI-M lawmaker and former minister Sushanta Ghosh, prime accused in the Midnapore skeletons case freed on conditional bail by the Supreme Court last week, Tuesday walked out of a jail here to a jubilant welcome from party workers who greeted him with 181 roses.
The boisterous welcome drew the heckles from the ruling Trinamool Congress, which accused the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) of criminalisation of state politics.
A large number of Marxist activists waited for hours since morning near the Alipore Central Correctional Home to receive Ghosh, and turned delirious as he stepped out of the prison gate.
“Sushanta Ghosh lal salam”, the party workers and supporters shouted as they presented bouquets to the former minister for Western Zone Development, who was in prison for 181 days.
Ghosh was arrested by the state Criminal Investigation Department Aug 11 last year in connection with recovery of skeletons near his ancestral house at Benachapra in West Midnapore district in June.
Leader of Opposition in the state assembly Surjya Kanta Mishra and party state secretariat member Rabin Deb were among those present to greet Ghosh. Mishra later accompanied him in a car to the MLAs’ Hostel in central Kolkata’s Kyd Street.
There were emotional scenes and many of the leaders and workers hugged Ghosh.
“I will not say anything today. Whatever I have to say I will say at the right time,” Ghosh said after boarding the vehicle.
Asked about his reaction on getting bail, he said: “See the thousands of people who have come. Then only you can gauge the reaction.”
Last Friday, an apex court bench of Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice Gyan Sudha Misra granted Ghosh bail, but imposed the condition that Ghosh would not visit West Midnapore district other than his assembly constituency Garbeta.
Deb denied that the leadership has feted Ghosh. “Do you see us (leaders) carrying flowers?”
Trinamool Youth Congress chief Subhendu Adhikary, criticising the flowery welcome for Ghosh, said: “This has only brought into the open the CPI-M’s championing of criminalisation of politics in the state.”
A villager, Shyamal Acharya, had filed a police complaint last year claiming that one of the skeletons found from a pit in a field near Ghosh’s ancestral house at Benachapra was of his father Ajay Acharya. Later, DNA reports corroborated Acharya’s claim.
The FIR filed in the case claimed that on Sep 22, 2002, Acharya and some other members of the Trinamool Congress were attacked by 40 armed people belonging to the CPI-M, including Ghosh.