Two Voices From The Same Mouth

KOLKATA, Oct. 5: The CPI-M and the state government today spoke in two voices on the question of removing the police officers, including the Commissioner of Police, whose names figured in the mysterious death of Rizwan-ur-Rehman, creating confusion worse confounded.
It was Mr Jyoti Basu who set the ball of confusion and speculation rolling when emerging from the CPI-M state committee meeting in the morning he said two officers in the Rizwanur case had been removed. When reporters asked him to identify the two, Mr Basu apparently parried an answer and only said : “Two officers have been removed. The CP’s name also figures. His remarks at the Press conference (two days after the death justifying police involvement and describing the death as a case of suicide even before the post mortem report was available) were very bad, uncalled for. The chief minister’s attention has been drawn to it. We have to await the outcome of a petition being heard in the court on whether the CBI can be asked to inquire.”
Despite repeated efforts by the media there was no word from the state government till the evening on whether any police officers had actually been removed. Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said : “What can I say after Mr Basu spoke on the issue. A judicial inquiry has been ordered and there’s a court case. I am in no position to speak on the issue at this stage.”
The home secretary, Mr Prasad Roy, was equally ambivalent. “I haven’t received any order on the removal. We are seeking legal advice on the question of transferring IPS officers as a judicial inquiry has been instituted and a court case is on. Moreover, there’s a view that the state government’s position may be weakened if IPS officers are transferred now.”
Asked whether the state government can take steps against police officers of the rank of assistant commissioner or sub-inspector while the inquiry is in progress, Mr Roy said : “Possibly it can.”
Mr Roy, however, insisted that the state government doesn’t “endorse at all” what the CP had stated at the controversial Press conference. He added the DC Headquarters, DCDD, DC (South) and officer-in-charge Karaya police station (whose names had come up for their alleged role in Rizwan-ur’s death under mysterious circumstances) would be examined. “There are allegations against some other officers whom I don’t want to name.” he said.
Senior city police officers refused to comment on Mr Basu’s statement that two city police officers, grilled in connection with the Rizwan-ur death case, had been removed.
When asked if he has received removal orders of the officers, Mr Ajoy Kumar, deputy commissioner of the city police’s detective department, replied in negative. “I have not received any official order to this effect till this evening,” Mr Kumar said. Mr Gyanwant Singh,
DC (headquarters), also confirmed that the officers have not been removed till this evening.
The big question that the day’s development threw up was: Who is running the state government ? The CPI-M party apparatus ? Or, the chief minister ? For, when Mr Basu told the media about the “removal” of two police officers, the state government not only had no inkling into who these officers were, the chief minister didn’t even confirm or deny what Mr Basu had stated.
Obviously, the CPI-M fielded Mr Jyoti Basu to salvage whatever was left of the image of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee-government and the party that took a severe beating after the shoddy handling of the Rizwarn-ur case by the city police. The CPI-M state committee, which met during the day, discussed the matter at length, toed the state government’s line and hoped that the judicial inquiry would unravel the truth. It expressed its sympathy for the bereaved members of Rizwan-ur’s family.
On the other hand, the family members said they would be satisfied only if action is taken against the two IPS officers they had named for their alleged role in Rizwan-ur’s death, Priyanka’s father, Mr Ashoke Todi, his brother Mr Pradip Todi and Mr Anil Sarogi.
Mr Nandagopal Bhattcharjee, water resources minister and CPI leader, said no fair inquiry is possible as long as the top police officers against whom allegations have been made remain in their present positions. Trinamul Congress chief Miss Mamata Banerjee strongly reacted to Mr Basu’s announcement of the removal of the two police officers and described it as an “eye-wash” and a desperate attempt to shield the higher-ups.
“It’s clear this government is grossly incompetent which is why it has used Mr Basu, who has nothing to do with the government’s functioning, to cover its misdeed. The police minister is no less culpable, just as the police chief who is being shielded along with two other senior police officers. The interim report of CID investigation has already showed the government’s intention to cover up the criminal conspiracy by the police to destroy the promising youth. Only a CBI inquiry can unravel the truth behind the heinous crime,” she said. The PCC acting president, Mr Pradip Bhattacharya, also dismissed the action taken against two lower ranking police officers as a “hogwash intended to protect their seniors.”