Kolkata: Cornering the Mamata Banerjee government further, a sizable number of young Leftist leaders on Wednesday held a rally in central Kolkata demanding justice for the alleged murder of student leader Anis Khan.
Led by the Left’s students and youth wings, the rally was held from College Square in the College Street area to Maulali, demanding the arrests of the culprits in the ‘Anis Khan murder’.
Slogans were raised against the incumbent ruling party, the Left’s arch-rival Trinamool Congress (TMC) and its 11-year-old government, while banners reading “No one killed Anish Khan!” were carried by the protesters in the rally.
Students’ Federation of India (SFI) all-India joint secretary Dipsita Dhar told India Blooms, “We have been demanding a judicial inquiry from the beginning. That is not happening. 10 days have already gone by, but no person involved in the case has been arrested.
“The government, Trinamool Congress and the police are actually trying to hide the Anis Khan murder and until these people are behind bars, the SFI, DYFI and the larger student youth organisation in Bengal are going to be on the streets.”
On February 18 midnight, Khan, a student of Kolkata’s Aliah University who was one of the faces of anti-CAA and anti-NRC protests in the city two years ago, died after being pushed off the roof of his own house, allegedly by four people who introduced themselves as policemen.
Also read: Anis Khan death: Calcutta HC upholds SIT probe, orders second post-mortem
Family members of the 28-year-old student leader claimed that three of the four policemen were wearing the uniform of civic volunteers, one was wearing the state police’s uniform and was carrying a firearm. After the four men left the house, Khan’s family found his body lying in a pool of blood beside their house.
Officials at Amta Police Station had initially claimed that no policeman from the police station had visited the student leader’s house that night in connection with any investigation. However, in a later briefing from the state secretariat Nabanna, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said two policemen had been arrested and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) would be probing the case.
Souvik Ghosh/India Blooms News Service
