Purulia death: Preliminary probe closed in an hour

KOLKATA: The Bengal police took just little more than an hour to close the preliminary investigation into the death of BJP worker Dulal Kumar (32) in Purulia, according to the report under Section 174 of CrPC.
A copy of the document, commonly known as inquest report, is with ET. It shows that the probe commenced at 2.25 pm and ended at 3.35 pm on June 2.

On June 2, Dulal Kumar’s body was found hanging from a high voltage electric tower almost six to seven feet above the ground, claimed his family and other witnesses. The report, however, does not mention it. It also states that circumstances which give rise to suspicion of foul play have ‘not yet been observed’.

“In normal course, taking the dead body, its examination on the spot in presence of witnesses, inquiry with locals as to who saw the body first and connecting the chain of events, calling the relatives of the deceased, chalking out scene of the incident, photography of body of the deceased, calling crime branch team to collect latent evidence and several other things take hours,” a senior official, who does not want to be named, told ET.

In the ‘opinion of witnesses’ section, the report says an autopsy is needed to know the cause of the death.

On June 2, the then superintendent of police (SP) Joy Biswas termed the death ‘suicide’ without the post-mortem report.

A day later, new SP Akash Magharia also declared it as suicide with the post-mortem report stating the cause of death as ‘suicide’. Ku mar’s family submitted a complaint at Balarampur police station alleging that it was murder. Sudip Hajra, the officer-in-charge of Balarampur police station told ET that he would not be able to comment as the case has been taken over by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

“The case has been handed over to CID,” Magharia said. ET tried to reach out to ADG CID Sanjay Singh but he could not be contacted.

However, sources in CID, said the autopsy report was “conclusive” and that there was “no need of further investigation into the matter”.

But a senior police official said there was scope of further investigation. “The point is how the victim climbed the tower without help and hanged himself.

There have to be fingerprints and it should be checked if there are more fingerprints on the tower other than the victim’s. The victim hanged himself with a nylon rope, which again appears unusual.

There are other loose ends which need to be connected,” he said. Kumar’s wife Monika and BJP district president Bidyasagar Chakraborty said Dulal had organised an agitation programme in Balarampur on June 1 to protest against the alleged killing of 18-year-old student Trilochan Mahato. No arrest has been yet made in connection with Trilochan’s death. The case was handed over to the CID. Since the two deaths there have been two major reshuffles. The then SP of Purulia was transferred and the ADG of CID was changed.

Anuj Sharma, ADG, Law and Order (CID) said, “In case of Mahato’s death, investigation is still going on. CID is probing the case. As far as Dulal’s death is concerned, post-mortem was conducted as per the legal provision.”

Meanwhile, the victims’ families and BJP members staged a fourday dharna in front of the district administration office in Purulia and appealed to the Supreme Court seeking a CBI investigation. BJP leader Locket Chatterjee said, “We went to the police station with Dulal’s family but they refused to treat our complaint as an FIR.”

The SC dismissed the plea and asked the petitioners to appeal before the Calcutta High Court. BJP national general secretary, Kailash Vijayvargiya told ET, “We will knock on the doors of the judiciary to seek justice.”

ET tried to reach out to DGP Virendra and state home secretary Atri Bhattacharya –– both of whom could not be contacted despite several attempts. Announcement of BJP national president Amit Shah’s upcoming visit to Purulia has added further momentum to the upheaval.

There has been a host of protest rallies and dharnas in Kolkata and districts across the state. BJP’s cyber team has been instructed to take the incidents to national audience, said a senior BJP leader.
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