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Calcutta, March 10: At least four Trinamul leaders other than Mohammad Iqbal alias Munna were present outside the college when a sub-inspector was shot dead last month, CID sources have said on the basis of information gleaned from interrogation and matched with TV footage.
The CID is now thinking of questioning some of the politicians whose names cropped up when Munna was questioned on the murder of officer Tapas Chowdhury outside Harimohan Ghose College in Garden Reach on February 12.
The names mentioned include that of Shamim Ansari, INTTUC leader at Garden Reach Ship Builders and Engineers; Abdul Khaleque Molla, former Congress leader and now with Trinamul; Ranjit Seal, the Trinamul councillor of ward 133; and Tabrez Ansari, the eldest son of Calcutta Municipal Corporation’s member mayor-in-council Shamsuzzaman Ansari.
Munna’s son Shams Iqbal alias Anil was also present, the CID sources said.
“Other than Munna, we would like to examine the roles of some of those who were present outside the college gate on the day of the firing. It is important to understand the complicity of all those who may be involved in the murder of Tapas Chowdhury,” a CID officer said.
Abdul Khaleque today said he was “not present” at the spot during the firing. When told that pictures with the CID suggested otherwise, he said: “I stayed there for a few minutes before Munna arrived.”
Shamsuzzaman, whose son Tabrez has reportedly been named by Munna, said: “He (Tabrez) went with (a minister)”. Told that pictures suggested Tabrez was present before the minister reached, Ansari said: “Then probably he (Tabrez) was waiting to receive him (the minister).”
Ranjit’s phone was switched off. The police said Munna’s son Anil was absconding.
The police tallied Munna’s revelations with television footage. A team of senior CID officers led by special IG Vineet Goyal met at the CID headquarters this afternoon. According to sources, it was decided at the meeting that some of the leaders other than Munna would be questioned.
The police have concluded that near the Trinamul camp outside the college, Munna stood close to INTTUC leader Shamim while Ibne Saud, Munna’s right-hand man, moved from one spot to another. At a distance stood Congress activists, the sources said.
“We need to know the whereabouts of Munna’s son. Munna has already said that Trinamul councillor Ranjit Seal had called him up and had asked him to come in front of the college to take control,” a CID officer said.
“The FIR (against Munna) has been drawn up under sections 302 (murder) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the IPC,” he added.
The probe team will try to find out why these leaders had reached the spot outside the college gate when the nomination process for the college union polls was on, an officer said.
The CID officers, however, are yet to take any decision on whether to quiz the Trinamul leader who is said to have stood by Munna since the firing on February 12. “We have not been given any go-ahead to pursue Munna’s statement in which he mentioned a mantriji who had asked him to leave the city and go underground,” a CID officer said.
He added: “It seems our bosses are also not sure about how to go about such sensitive revelations by him…. These will be political decisions and we will need clearance from higher authorities.”
The CID has learnt from Munna that on the morning of February 12, there was a change in plan after the Trinamul top brass sent an SOS to the borough chairman asking him to “intervene” so that Congress strongman Mukhtar’s supporters didn’t have a free run with the nomination process, sources have revealed.
Munna has apparently told the police that he and his supporters had initially decided to stay away from the college poll this year after his name cropped up in a fracas outside the same college gate in 2012.
But with Trinamul leader Ranjit’s son Avijit injured in a blast the previous night, the new plan was worked out.
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