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Fresh twist to Midnapore bodies issue

With both the Communist Party of India-Marxist and the Trinamul Congress making contradictory claims, the controversy surrounding the dead bodies that arrived in Calcutta from Midnapore on Tuesday night got murkier.

The whole episode took a fresh twist on Wednesday evening when an elderly person claiming to be the father of one of the deceased 'identified' the skeleton.

Brought by Trinamul leaders from Midnapore, the man said that the teeth of a skeleton was that of his son. Wailing and chest beating, A Mondal said that his son Somosri Mondal was a computer engineer whom CPI-M workers abducted on September 25 from a bus stop near Keshpur.

"His (Somosri's) teeth were beautiful, unmatched in the entire village. I can tell all of you with conviction that this skeleton is my son's. The CPI-M men kidnapped and killed him," Mondal said.

Trinamul leader Pankaj Banerjee changed his earlier claims saying he no longer thought that skeleton was from the Garbeta massacre. He, however, was silent on the identity of the other three bodies.

Meanwhile the missing papers relating to the dead bodies arrived only on Wednesday afternoon. This infuriated Trinamul leaders who had been camping outside the morgue since Tuesday night. Banerjee alleged that the papers were manufactured by the Marxists in Writers' Building.

A senior police officer told rediff.com that the papers were lying in the state secretariat for past two months. Interestingly, the Deputy Inspector General of Police (public relations) Gautam Chakraborty had told reporters that bodies were recovered in December last year.

Chakraborty further stated that the corpses were those of CPI-M workers reportedly kidnapped in Pingla in July 1999 and November 2000.

Trinamul leaders, however, rubbished this and questioned the delay in the arrival of the papers.

"That it reached almost a day after dead bodies reached Calcutta amply indicates that these papers have been fabricated," said a Trinamul MLA.

West Bengal Director General of Police Dipak Sanyal told reporters on Wednesday that the police had adequate proof to show that the dead bodies were from Pingla. Sanyal's announcement was a repetition of what Chakraborty had told rediff.com on Tuesday night.

A delegation comprising senior Trinamul leaders including the party's leader in Parliament Sudip Bandopaddhyay will submit a memorandum to Governor Viren J Shah. Sources said that the party will also demand the resignation of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya besides asking Shah to review the law and order situation in the state.

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