Needle at cousin after death

Midnapore, July 27: An uncle, aunt and 12-year-old cousin were arrested on Tuesday in connection with the murder of Subhajit Sahoo, 4, in an East Midnapore village.

Subhajit went missing from the playground on Monday afternoon, when he was with cousin Pradip. Hours later, his body was found in an adjacent bush. A neighbour at Padmapur village, about 100 km from Calcutta, said Pradip had wanted from his mother a silver chain like the one Subhajit wore. Police said he was hit on the head with a stone and stabbed several times. Pradip’s parents, Pareash and Laxmi, are being questioned.

CPM dissent

Calcutta: Alarmed at reports of rumbling in the party’s South 24-Parganas unit, the CPM brass met key district leaders at Alimuddin Street on Tuesday. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and state party secretary Anil Biswas attended the talks on the trouble over the induction of Batokrishna Roy and Khokan Ghoshdastidar to the district committee. The CPM is divided with a section led by Sunderbans affairs minister Kanti Ganguly supporting the nominations and another led by land and land reforms minister Abdul Rezzak Mollah opposing them.

Rice park

Calcutta: The government wants to develop a rice park. The chief minister discussed the possibility with agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan on Tuesday. The expert said high-yield varieties of rice and those with medicinal value would be grown in the park. He also told the government China could be a big market for mangoes.