Baguiati murders: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee seeks answers from police brass

KOLKATA: An upset CM Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday pulled up the police for "lapses and negligence" in probing the missing complaints of the two Baguati schoolboys whose murder came to light on Tuesday, and the complete "lack of coordination" between the Bidhannagar and Basirhat police. She also set DGP Manoj Malaviya a week's deadline to "do anything that it takes" to plug coordination gaps among state police units.
Within minutes of the CM reading the riot act, the inspector-in-charge of Baguiati police station, the investigating officer probing the abduction-murder and an ASI were suspended and the case handed over to the state CID. The two boys, who went out to buy a motorbike with neighbour Satyendra Chaudhary on August 22, was killed by him inside a moving car the same day and their bodies dumped in a canal beside Basanti Highway. A fortnight later, the cops tracked the bodies to a police morgue in Basirhat. Chaudhary (30) is still on the run but his four accomplices were arrested on Tuesday.
At the very beginning of an administrative review meeting in Nabanna, an angry CM questioned DGP Malaviya and Bidhannagar CP Supratim Sarkar how information about two unclaimed bodies of young boys lying in a Basirhat morgue did not reach Bidhanagar police which was probing missing complaints of two boys even though both are under the same district.
Banerjee also demanded to know from the Bidhannagar CP why the rulebook on informing the CID's missing person's squad for all missing complaints in the state was not followed and added that the Bidhannagar police had been "negligent" in handling the case. She also asked if the Baguihati police station IC had been suspended. The CM's outburst came a little after minister Firhad Hakim told reporters that Baguihati IC Kallol Ghosh had been closed (removed from active duty).
At the CM's prodding, senior police officers, including the Bidhannagar CP and ADG (CID) P Rajsekharan, visited the grieving parents of Atanu Dey and Abhishek Naskar at their residences in Keshtopur and Baguiati respectively. Minister Sujit Bose also met the two families.
The parents of murdered teenagers Atanu Dey and Abhishek Naskar, who have complained of inaction by Baguiati police and demanded that they be kept out of the investigation, welcomed the change in probe agency. “The CID has taken over the case. The DIG CID and other officers are here and they have begun their investigation,” said Bidhannagar CP Supratim Sarkar.
“We are happy that CID has taken over the case. Now they should give us justice by arresting the man who killed my son and ensure he gets the strictest of punishments. We want nothing but the death penalty for him,” said Biswanath Dey, Atanu’s father. “Baguiati police did nothing for us. Now we just hope to get justice from CID,” said Hari Naskar, Abhishek’s father.
Minister Firhad Hakim, who attended the administrative meeting, told reporters that the CM was extremely upset with the loss of two young lives in such a tragic manner. “The IC should have been more active. Police, overall, should have been more active. They should have consulted senior officials and CID if they were finding it difficult to get a breakthrough. This is the reason the IC has been removed and the case transferred to CID,” he said.
“The CM has instructed the DG to arrest all culprits at the earliest and ensure exemplary punishment for them,” Hakim said and added that chief minister Mamata Banerjee had asked everyone to stand with the two families in their hour of crisis. The West Bengal Commission For Protection of Child Rights has also taken suo motu cognizance of the case and show-caused IC Kallol Ghosh.
In a release, WBCPCR said it had directed all commissionerates and superintendents of police districts to send updates regarding any case under Juvenile Justice Act, POCSO, RTE, or any other case related to violation of child rights, within 24 hours of registration. “Neither was information about the missing boys reported to the commission nor was the information of their death reported to this office,” it said.