JOIN USThe two deaths, and Bengal’s politics of ‘distrust’
Anis Khan, a student leader, was found dead under mysterious circumstances late on Friday (Feb 18) night at Amta, in Howrah district adjoining Kolkata. Four persons, who had visited Anis on the night concerned, had claimed that they were police personnel. The student leader was allegedly pushed off from an upper floor of his house.
Suspicious about local police, the family demanded a CBI probe. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, however announced a Special Investigation Team (SIT) for probing the death. Just days later, The Calcutta High Court permitted SIT to continue its probe. The court also ordered a second post-mortem and forensic investigation of the student leader’s mobile phone.
Following his death, Kolkata has been on the boil with daily protests that seem unending. Politicians and social activists, too, have been vocal in demanding justice. Besides students of Aliah University, an autonomous state university where Anis had studied, student-bodies affiliated to different political outfits have protested demanding fair investigation.
Leading from the front are Left-backed organisations, with Students’ Federation of India (SFI) being the most active. Srijan Bhattacaryya, SFI’s state secretary, claimed to Deccan Herald that Anis had been active with different student bodies, including SFI, over a period of time and had campaigned for Indian Secular Front, a Left-ally during last state assembly elections.
The Anis Khan case has brought back old memories to light - a 15-year old incident in Kolkata, when the Left Front was in power. In September 2007, Rizwanur Rehman, a young computer graphics trainer was found dead beside railway tracks, days after he had got married to a girl from a different financial background and faith. A section of senior police officials, it was alleged, had harassed Rizwan after the marriage. Subsequently, the case went for a CBI investigation.
The two cases have pitched political opponents in reverse situations. In 2007, Mamata Banerjee had demanded a CBI probe in the Rizwanur case, and had stood by the aggrieved family as the Left Front government tried to tackle the situation that was tense with non-stop protests.
Fifteen years later in 2022, despite the family's demand of a CBI probe with the police ‘role’ appearing suspicious, Mamata ordered a SIT-probe. The Left is now backing up stormy protests on the streets.
“The developments suggest that there is a deep distrust of the political establishment, once they (parties concerned) are in power. This is a very unfortunate situation where the public has deep distrust of political parties in power because they think that the regime, for its own purposes, will manipulate institutions like police and administration, or do anything to remove anything disadvantageous,” said Shikha Mukerjee, political analyst.
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