Morcha supporters walk through Gurung Busty in Siliguri with lighted candles. A Telegraph picture

April 6: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today accused the Bengal government and minister Asok Bhattacharya of trying to indict the party in the twin blasts in Champasari that killed three alleged explosive makers last week. The Morcha has demanded that the probe be handed over to a central agency.

The charges follow 24 hours after Bhattacharya said in Siliguri that insurgent groups, in association with some parties in north Bengal, were trying to spread tension and that the IEDs were meant to be used in the subdivision.

Police on the other hand said Dipen Rai, one of the accused in the blast and the only one to escape alive from the house where the IEDs went off, has revealed that he was waiting for instructions that would have arrived on April 9. The instructions would have told him the target. The police said the timer devices suggested that the IEDs would have gone off in the next five-six days.

The Siliguri Municipal Corporation is expected to hold a public convention on April 10 to garner public opinion against the Morcha demand to make the subdivision a part of Gorkhaland. The Morcha had earlier announced that it would oppose the SMC convention and has planned a hunger strike against it in Siliguri and the Dooars.

The Morcha believes that it was the minister’s “ploy” to link the blast with the April 10 convention, a part of a “larger gameplan” to muffle the voices of Gorkhaland.

“The state government at the behest of Asok Bhattacharya is conspiring to stop the Morcha from carrying out its programmes in Siliguri and the Dooars by alleging that the party had links with the blasts. We demand that the investigation be handed over to a central agency to expose the truth,” Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri said over phone from Ranchi. Giri has through the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) in Jharkhand appealed to tribals in the Darjeeling plains to support the Gorkhaland cause. Sudesh Mahato, the AJSU president, will be in the Dooars on April 20 to campaign for Gorkhaland.

The Morcha had called a 12-hour general strike in the Mirik-Soureni area to stop Bhattacharya from addressing a public meeting there today. The CPM changed its plans and held the meeting yesterday, but Bhattacharya skipped the show.

This evening, the Sukna unit of the Morcha brought out a silent, candle-light procession in the Gurung Busty-Pradhannagar area condemning the Champasari blasts. The police said no permission had been given for the procession.