Political blame game over KK's death in Bengal

KOLKATA: The death of Bollywood playback singer Krishnakumar Kunnath, popularly known as KK, has triggered a political furore with Opposition parties on Thursday accusing Trinamool Congress, the state administration, and the event organisers of mismanagement.

BJP MP in Bishnupur Saumitra Khan on Thursday wrote a letter to the Union Home minister Amit Shah demanding a CBI probe into the singer’s demise.

Accusing the ruling Trinamool Congress, BJP’s national vice-president alleged KK’s death was nothing but a planned murder. ‘’Union minister Amit Shah ji once told if one visits Bengal, they may get killed. KK’s death proved it. The event was organised not by a college. It was organised by the TMC. The singer was not feeling well. He wanted to leave the venue. But the organisers forced him to sing one after another song. When the singer was moving forward to his death slowly, the organisers were busy celebrating it,’’ he alleged.

Rubbishing Ghosh’s allegation, TMC MP Saugata Roy said it was baseless. ‘’The singer’s death is painful. Chief Minister expressed her condolence and the state government paid homage to the singer by giving gun-salute in presence of the chief minister,’’ he said.

KK had come to Kolkata on Sunday for two performances in the state capital. Both the performances were staged at Nazrul Mancha in south Kolkata. Tuesday’s performance was the annual social of Gurudas Mahavidyalaya in Ultadanga where he performed and collapsed shortly after returning hotel. He was taken to a private hospital where doctors declared him dead on arrival.

In his preliminary opinion, the autopsy surgeon did not find any abnormality in KK’s death.

In his letter to Shah, Khan alleged there was no senior police officer at the event venue. ‘’The indoor auditorium has a capacity of 3,000 but there was a crowd of 7,000. Who allowed so many people to enter? There was a larger conspiracy behind the singer’s death. Facts will emerge only after the CBI steps in,’’ he wrote.

CPI (M)­’s students’ wing SFI accused the college unit of TMC’s student organisation TMCP of illegally selling passes for the live event at higher prices. ‘’They sold tickets in black, spread five extinguishers in the indoor auditorium, then switched off AC. This is a criminal offence,’’ alleged SFI’s national general secretary Mayukh Biswas.