Rukbanur Rahman and his uncles, outside their Tiljala Lane home, deny having struck a deal to get Priyanka Todi out of Rizwanur’s life. Picture by Amit Datta

The Rahman family closed ranks on Thursday afternoon and put up a united front against allegations of pay-offs being levelled by the Todis.

Rukbanur Rahman rallied his uncles round him and rubbished charges that Priyanka Todi’s father and uncle had paid a hefty amount to some of Rizwanur’s family members to “settle” the matter.

“If we wanted to strike a deal, could we not have accepted Ashok Todi’s offer of a blank cheque?” demanded Rukbanur.

“We supported the marriage of my brother Rizwanur Rahman with Priyanka Todi, so at no point of time were we willing to accept any kind of deal for their separation,” he added, speaking to reporters near their Tiljala Lane home.

The Todis have reportedly told investigating agencies that they had paid off two of Rizwanur’s uncles to try and get Priyanka out of his life.

“All my uncles are here and you are free to ask them whether they had engaged in any kind of financial transaction with the Todis. This is yet another deliberate attempt to shift the focus of the investigation from the death of my brother. This is clearly an attempt by a section of our detractors to malign us,” stated Rukbanur.

Rizwanur’s uncles maintained that no money had exchanged hands between the Todis and the Rahmans.

They went on to claim that it was not just on the day that Ashok Todi had come to his son-in-law’s 7B Tiljala Lane house that money had been offered to the 30-year-old computer graphics design teacher.

“The day after, Ashok Todi’s driver turned up with a blank cheque. On yet another day, three toughs had turned up with a similar offer,” they alleged.

Rukbanur recounted how “Priyanka had resisted” when Ashok Todi had ordered Rizwanur at Lalbazar to sign some stamp papers stating he would not get anything from the family property and business.

Earlier on Thursday, Rukbanur and his mother Kishwar Jahan filed a petition before Calcutta High Court, seeking an order to set aside the process of the judicial commission appointed by the state government to probe Rizwanur’s death.

The petition claimed that the judicial commission had no legal validity, as a state-appointed commission had no authority to interrogate IPS officers.

The petition also stated that the judicial commission has no right to conduct the probe, since Calcutta High Court had already asked the CBI to investigate the matter.

The terms of reference of the judicial commission, announced by the state government on October 1, included the role of the police and the mystery behind the death of Rizwanur Rahman.

Kalyan Banerjee, the advocate representing the Rahmans, said the petition would come up for hearing before a vacation bench in November.