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Nandi murder charge on absconder Seth

-The Telegraph

CPM leader Lakshman Seth has been accused of murder in a CID chargesheet over the disappearance of six anti-land acquisition protesters during the party’s recapture of Nandigram in November 2007.

The chargesheet, submitted to the Haldia sub-divisional court around 5.10pm, also names 87 other CPM leaders and workers.

“Seth has been mentioned in the chargesheet as an accused who is absconding,” a senior CID official said.

Hours after the CID submitted the chargesheet, two accused CPM workers were arrested from Khejuri near Nandigram. Sources in the agency said Naru Karan and Kanailal Bhuniya had thought their names did not feature in the chargesheet and had returned home from their hideout.

Of the 88 people with CPM links, 15 have been arrested so far. “Our investigation has revealed that the accused had played definite roles in the murder of the six persons,” the official said.

K. Jayraman, the deputy inspector-general of police (operations) of the CID, said: “The chargesheet was submitted after the completion of the probe into the disappearance of the six persons.”

The agency has brought charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, abduction and suppression of evidence against Seth.

Legal experts in Calcutta High Court said the CID could now arrest Seth without the court’s permission as his name featured in the chargesheet. The agency requested the court to give permission to issue a warrant for Seth’s arrest.

“The police can now arrest Lakshman Seth without any hindrance,” advocate Rabishankar Chattopadhyay said.

Seth has not been seen in public since the beginning of this month. He skipped the CPM’s three-day district conference in East Midnapore that began on January 6, apparently fearing arrest.

“After his close aide Naba Samanta (a CPM gram panchayat member in Nandigram) was arrested in the last week of December, he began apprehending arrest,” a party source said.

Seth’s wife Tamalika, however, denied that he was absconding. “My husband is not hiding from the police. He has gone outside Haldia on personal work. The Trinamul Congress has conspired against my husband and other CPM leaders to scuttle our prospects in the municipal polls at Haldia and Panskura. The elections will be held in a few months,” Tamalika, a district secretariat member of the CPM, said.

Tamalika alleged the Trinamul government was trying to put Seth behind bars to “weaken” the CPM in East Midnapore. “They had done the same thing with Sushanta Ghosh (in neighbouring West Midnapore),” she said.

Surjya Kanta Mishra, the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, said the CPM would comment only after getting a copy of the chargesheet. “But hundreds of party leaders and workers are being arrested on false charges. We shall stand by them,” he said.

Apart from Seth, the other prominent CPM leaders named in the chargesheet are district secretariat members Ashok Guria and Amiya Sahu; the zonal committee secretary of Khejuri, Himangshu Das; and Tapan Ghosh and Sukur Ali.

The general secretary of Trinamul in East Midnapore, Mahmud Hossain, said the CPM had killed anti-land acquisition activists in Nandigram. “We had repeatedly sought justice. Now the CID is bringing out the truth.”

The Nandigram land war started in January 2007 after the Haldia Development Authority, then headed by Seth, issued a circular for acquisition of land for a proposed chemical hub in Nandigram.

On March 14, 2007, 14 land protesters were killed in police firing in Nandigram, following which the Trinamul-backed Bhumi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee staged a fightback and sealed off the area. On November 10 the same year, the CPM recaptured Nandigram. The six persons are missing since then.

The wives of the six had filed a habeas corpus petition in Calcutta High Court in July last year on the basis of which the court ordered the CID to probe the incident.

“On the basis of the statements of 138 witnesses and the arrested persons, we have concluded that the six missing persons are not alive,” said Sisir Roy, the CID DSP.