Jan. 25: Amid speculation about his arrest for alleged links with the KLO, Kamtapur People’s Party founder Atul Roy today accused the CPM of launching a witch-hunt and said he was prepared to offer his cellphone as evidence in court.

Roy, a former president of the party and now its spokesman, has been under the scanner since early January when the police seized a mobile phone from KLO militant Anirban Rava, who was killed in an encounter off Mainaguri while trying to sneak into Bhutan.

Chief of the Jalpaiguri force Siddh Nath Gupta had then claimed he had “clear proof” that Rava spoke to Roy on his cellphone several times.

“We are thoroughly verifying all records stored inside the SIM card of Rava’s cellphone,” said a senior police officer.

Brushing aside the allegations, Roy today said the police would first have to prove that he spoke to Rava on his cellphone. “As a bona fide BSNL customer, I am prepared to offer my mobile phone for the scrutiny of the court. But the police cannot blame me for nothing on the issue,” he told The Telegraph.

Roy, who was deposed as KPP president last year after a battle of succession with Nikhil Roy, accused the police in north Bengal of harassing the party leaders at the behest of the CPM.

“We have maintained that the KPP is distinct from the KLO. It is sad that taking advantage of the offensive in Bhutan, a section of the police in north Bengal is harassing innocent Rajbanshis. The police are trying to bulldoze our democratic and ethnic movement by selectively targeting the KPP top brass.”

The party believes the police overdrive was the result of a CPM strategy to crush the Kamtapuri movement by equating the KPP with the KLO.

“The entire move is a conspiracy hatched by the state machinery and the CPM to create unrest among the Rajbanshi youths. Several times over the past few years, they (the police) have accused me and other KPP leaders of having links with the KLO. They want to arrest senior KPP leaders and then find an excuse to crack down on the party. Let them prove the allegations,” Roy said.

Besides Roy, the Jalpaiguri police are investigating the role of KPP general secretary Subhash Burman, who, they claim, had “recruited” four youths and sent them to the KLO’s training camps in Bhutan. The police raided Burman’s residence in Pakua in Malda three days ago.