GJM hand suspected in Tamang murder
Correspondent
DARJEELING, July 17 – A day after news reports revealed that police has evidence of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s involvement in the murder of Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League (ABGL) leader Madan Tamang on May 21, political parties have demanded that the West Bengal Government take immediate action against the killers.
It may be recalled that on Thursday, The Indian Express, Kolkata Edition had reported that official intercepts of telephone conversations the day Tamang was attacked, pointed to the complicity of top GJM leaders. A voice verification had identified the callers as GJM president Bimal Gurung, general secretary Roshan Giri and some local leaders. A few local leaders named in the FIR filed by ABGL are now absconding.
The intercepts showed Giri was not only aware of the attack but had given detailed instructions not to let Tamang, considered the moderate voice of opposition in the Darjeeling Hills, hold the public meeting.
Reacting to the report, a number of political parties said the State Government must act now if it has to restore the rule of law and establish its credibility in the hills.
Dawa Sherpa, working president of the All Bengal Gorkha League who joined the party after Tamang was killed, said the police should immediately arrest the leaders whose telephone conversations have been intercepted. It is a clinching evidence of their involvement in the crime, he said.
During Question Hour in the West Bengal Assembly on Thursday, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee reiterated that the killers of Tamang have fled the country and are hiding in a neighbouring country. “But we will definitely get them and bring them here for justice,” Bhattacharjee had said. Asked why the government was not acting on the evidence of phone intercepts, Home Secretary Samar Ghosh refused to comment.
RB Rai of the Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists said the government should come with an impartial and thorough inquiry in light of the new evidence.
The news about the telephone intercepts had spread in the Hills through word of mouth. Several political leaders from Darjeeling alleged that all copies of The Indian Express have been lifted by the police in Siliguri before it reached the Hills.
Source: The Assam Tribune
