E-Paper
Bengal BDO rejects murder charge levelled by jeweller’s family, sees conspiracy
Prasanta Burman, the BDO from Jalpaiguri district’s Rajganj, said the accusations against him were fabricated
KOLKATA: A block development officer (BDO) in north Bengal accused of killing a jeweller near Kolkata on October 29 on Friday rejected accusations of his involvement, saying the charges levelled against him by the victim’s family were fabricated
Prasanta Burman, the BDO from Jalpaiguri district’s Rajganj, said he had always been a officer and would remain so. But the charges against him were cooked up. “It is a conspiracy against me as I am a member of the scheduled caste Rajbangshi community. I will expose the conspirators,” Burman told reporters in Jalpaiguri after attending a meeting convened by a visiting team of the Election Commission of India in connection with the special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll.
Swapan Kamilya, a 45-year-old resident of West Midnapore district’s Danton, was found dead in a desolate area of New Town near Kolkata on October 29. There were injury marks on the body, which were alleged to have led to his death.
Kamilya’s family alleged that he was abducted by Prasanta Burman and some men from Salt Lake in a car fitted with a blue beacon on October 28.
Kamilya used to run a small jewellery business from a rented shop at Salt Lake. Gobinda Bag, the landlord, alleged that he, too, was abducted in the same incident but was later let off.
Bag told reporters on October 5 that the man who abducted them identified himself as Prasanta Burman.
Bag said it was alleged that Kamilya bought some jewellery that had been stolen from Barman’s house in the Salt Lake - New Town area. “He let me go but took Kamilya away,” he said.
The deceased’s younger brother Ratan Kamilya claimed that Burman had come to Danton in the past and there were videos to prove it.
On Friday, Burman insisted that he never owned any property in the Salt Lake-New Town area, from which the jewellery could have been stolen, and that he was not in Kolkata on October 28.
“I don’t own a house. I did not go to Salt Lake or Dandon. Videos can be doctored. This is a conspiracy. Some people have ganged up because I stopped corrupt practices by private contractors at Rajganj,” Burman said on Friday.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader and union minister Sukanta Majumdar put out a two-page complaint filed by the deceased’s family. “Even after the victim’s family lodged a direct complaint of murder, why has no action been taken against the BDO officer from Rajganj? He travelled all the way from North Bengal to Dantan in West Midnapore, threatened the victim’s family, and then used an official vehicle with a blue beacon to first abduct a businessman and allegedly murder him. Despite these grave charges, why is the police behaving with such shocking indifference?” Majumdar claimed.
TMC spokesperson Arup Chakraborty said a probe was already on.
“An investigation is on in this case. As far as law and order goes, the BJP should look at its track record in the states it rules,” Chakraborty said.
