Suri, Jan. 11: At least 12 of the 36 people whose names the public prosecutor of Birbhum wants dropped from the chargesheet related to the murder of a sub-inspector were mentioned in a statement given by the officer on his deathbed.
The statement of sub-inspector Amit Chakraborty, written in Bengal, says: "I had told Sheikh Alim (an elected Trinamul functionary of the Dubrajpur panchayat samiti) and others not to hurl bombs. But they did not listen to me and started throwing bombs. A bomb hit me in the abdomen and my entrails came out.... I am now in hospital and only god knows whether I will live."
Chakraborty, who was attached to Dubrajpur police station, was attacked with bombs when he and other cops tried to prevent suspected Trinamul activists from attacking a CPM leader's house in June 2014. He died in hospital after 50 days.
On January 5 this year, public prosecutor Ranjit Ganguly sought a Suri court judge's permission to drop the names of 36 people, most of them suspected Trinamul workers, from the chargesheet. The 36 include prime accused Alim.
Lawyers in Suri court said the statement of an injured person to the police before death amounted to a dying declaration.
A police officer who was once associated with the case said: "We took Amit's statement and verified it with witnesses. We have evidence against each and everyone mentioned in the chargesheet."
Ganguly was not available for comment.