Kolkata. A key eyewitness to the murder of Congress councilor Tapan Kandu of Jhalda Municipality in Purulia district of West Bengal was found dead at his residence on Wednesday morning. This information was given by the police. He was a close aide of Niranjan Kandu and was with Kandu when the attack took place on March 13. Kandu was murdered when he was walking with his wife Poornima Kandu in the evening. Vaishnavas were also with him.
Vaishnav’s body was found hanging at his residence in Jhalda and a suicide note was recovered from his room.
The suicide note read that “he was unable to bear the pressure of the district police and has never stepped into the police station.”
In this note, Vaishnav also referred to the murder of Tapan Kandu, in which he was an eyewitness, and said that he was feeling scared since the day the tragic incident took place.
The Congress had called for a 12-hour strike in Jhalda on Wednesday. While local Congress leaders and workers were organizing a rally in support of the strike, the news of Vaishnav’s mysterious death went viral. Congress workers reached his residence and found Vaishnav hanging on the noose. After this, the police reached there and sent the body for post-mortem.
Tapan Kandu’s wife Poornima Kandu, a councilor of Jhalda Municipality, claimed that there was a deep controversy behind the mysterious death of Niranjan Vaishnav. She further said, “Since the murder of my husband, the district police was pressurizing many people. I demand a CBI inquiry into the matter.”
Mithun Kandu, the nephew of Tapan Kandu, told reporters that Niranjan Vaishnav told him that the district police was pressurizing him after the murder of Tapan Kandu. “Now the CBI is finding out the real reason behind his mysterious death,” Kandu said.
Hours later, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court ordered a CBI inquiry into the death of Tapan Kandu. The victim’s family shared an audio clip in which a local Trinamool Congress leader was threatening Tapan Kandu of dire consequences if he was not transferred from Congress to Trinamool. The local Trinamool Congress leader has been identified as Amal Kandu.
A special investigation team of the state police was probing the case before the order of the Calcutta High Court. During the special investigation, 4 people were arrested in this case, including the victim’s brother Naren Kandu and his son Deepak Kandu. Purulia district superintendent of police S Selvamurugan had claimed that the reason behind Tapan Kandu’s murder was a family feud between the two brothers. The District Superintendent of Police has also given a clean chit to Inspector Sanjeev Ghosh, in-charge of Jhalda police station.
On Monday, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court ordered the CBI to submit the preliminary inquiry report within 45 days.
—AnyTV News
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