Protests over young student leader\'s murder in West Bengal; Police role under scanner

Kolkata: A young student union leader's murder at home in Howrah of West Bengal two days ago under mysterious circumstances and a dubious police role has triggered strong protests by his neighbours and the Left Front workers, leaving the Mamata Banerjee government in a spot. The victim, Anees Khan, was from Sarada Dakshin Khan Para village at Amta.

The 28-year-old was a journalism student of Kalyani University and also a student union leader of Indian Secular Front at Aliah University. He earlier participated in the anti-citizenship law agitation and feared attack by local Trinamul Congress workers on him and his family in a letter to the police in May last year.

On February 18 night four persons stormed his house and held his father, Salam Khan, at gunpoint. They attacked Anees, dragged him to the roof of his three-storeyed house and threw him off. He was found dead after the gang fled. Salam alleged one of the attackers was in police uniform with a revolver while others in the civic volunteers'.

Following his complaint, the police initiated a case under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code but no one has been arrested so far. Salam demanded a CBI probe into the case. Protests erupted on Sunday when the cops of the Amta police station went to encircle the victim's house. Angry villagers resisted the police team forcing them to flee. They also marched in a protest rally with the Left student union workers.

The top brass of the state police has called superintendent of police (Howrah Rural) Soumya Roy and sought a report from him as senior CPI(M) leaders including Bikash Bhattacharya visited the victim's family and blamed the police for the murder.

TMC minister Firhad Hakim said, "How the assailants could get police uniform is a surprise. Such incidents do not happen here. Whether the police personnel or someone else posing as a cop were involved will be revealed in a probe."