Ex-minister Susanta charged with murder

23 September 2011

Charge-sheet filed in Benachapra skeleton recovery case

biswabrata goswami 

MIDNAPORE, 23 SEPT: For the first time in West Bengal, a minister, though a former one, has been charged with murder.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) filed a charge-sheet against the former CPI-M minister for Paschimanchal Unnayan affairs, Mr Susanta Ghosh and 57 other CPI-M leaders and workers in connection with Benachapra skeleton recovery case before the chief judicial magistrate (CJM) of Midnapore Judges’ court today.
“Many among the 58 CPI-M activists including Mr Ghosh accused in the Benachapra skeleton recovery case, in which at least seven Trinamul Congress workers were killed and then buried in a graveyard on 22 September in 2002, were directly involved in the murder, conspiracy and disappearance of evidences,” the charge-sheet reads.
Among the accused, 16 CPI-M men are in judicial custody, while the remaining 42 CPI-M men are absconding, the CID stated in the charge-sheet.
Mr Purna Sekhar Mukherjee, a CID officer, said: “We have filed the charge-sheet within 88 days of the first arrest, of a CPI-M worker on 28 June, but the investigation into the case will continue for a few more months. Following receipt of the forensic report of two of the seven skeletons (which is yet to come) a supplementary Arms Act charge-sheet could be submitted later.”
Besides filing the charge-sheet, which runs to 22 pages, the CID also submitted about 3,000 pages of documents and annexures before Mr Manoj Kumar Rai, CJM, Midnapore. The documents were brought packed in a trunk and submitted before the magistrate.
Mr Mukherjee told journalists: “Seven skeletons were dug up from a pit near Ghosh’s ancestral house in Benachapra village in West Midnapore district on 22 June. The ex-minister was arrested on 11 August based on the FIR lodged with the Anandapur police by one Shymal Acharya who had claimed one of the skeletons was that of his father Ajay Acharya. He had lodged a complaint against 40 men while the CID has tagged another 18 CPI-M men based on the information collected from the arrested men during the probe”.
Trinamul Congress had alleged that the bodies of its supporters, who died in a firing incident on 22 September, 2002 at Piyasala village, were carted away by CPI-M cadres and buried at the spot.
But, the CID officers have not confirmed about the firing yet and because of this reason, it has not tagged any of the accused with provisions of the Arms Act. The CID officials, however, have gathered enough evidence about the killing and so, they have filed charges of murder, conspiracy and disappearance of evidence against the accused, a CID lawyer said.
Sixteen of the 58 persons named in the charge-sheet are already behind bars, while the remaining including CPI-M’s Paschimbanga Krishak Sabha general secretary Mr Tarun Roy, Keshpur zonal secretary Mr Imtiaz Ali and the former minister’s brother Mr Prasanta Ghosh have not been arrested so far, a CID officer said.
The CJM court on 19 September had extended Ghosh’s judicial custody for 43 more days in connection with the case and ordered authorities to produce him before the court on 31 October. Bail pleas of six others accused in the case were rejected and the court also extended their custody.
On the same day, Mr Ghosh had moved the Calcutta High Court seeking bail in the case, which adjourned hearing the prayer till Monday.
Mr Mukul Roy, Trinamul leader and Union minister of state for shipping, said: “At last justice is being done. When the police submit a charge-sheet, it's done on the basis of prima facie evidence. We have long been saying Mr Susanta Ghosh took an active part in suppressing democracy. Whoever protested against the CPI-M's atrocities and misrule his place was either the burning ghat or the grave.”