Left student, youth bodies clash with police during protest against Anis Khan death case

KOLKATA: Protesters on Saturday fought a pitched battle with law enforcers throwing bricks and damaging police vehicles during a rally by CPI(M)'s student and youth bodies to the office of SP, Howrah Rural, on the issue of the mysterious death of a student activist Anis Khan. All India general secretary of SFI Mayukh Biswas, state general secretary of the student body Srijan Bhattacharya, and state secretary of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) Minakshi Mukherjee were among the agitators.

Though the activists had promised that the protest would be peaceful, the group of people, also comprising locals, suddenly overturned two police barricades before the office of SP, Howrah Rural, in Panchla area, after traversing a distance of one kilometre from Ranihati More, a police officer said. As the pelting of stones continued for some time from 4:30 pm, the police swung into action using lathi-charge and tear gas shells to disperse the mob, a police officer said. The protesters also vandalised some parked police vehicles and tried to torch a van, the officer said.

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Mukherjee, who was injured along with a few SFI and DYFI members, later claimed before reporters while being taken away in prison vans, that the activists were not involved in the vandalism and some outsiders might have triggered the violence. Few policemen who were also injured in the incident were treated at a health centre, the police officer said. The protesters were apparently carrying bricks in their pockets and wanted to instigate violence but the police used minimum force to quell the mob considering the extent of damage, he said. The mob was demanding action against the Howrah Rural SP Soumya Roy alleging Roy and the Amta officer in charge were involved in Anis Khan’s death.

The agitators alleged the state investigating authorities were yet to make any breakthrough in the "cold-blooded murder of Anis" and arrest the real culprits. Top state police officers went to the spot which still resembled a battlefield with bricks, shards of broken glass, and empty tear gas shells lying scattered on the road. Mukherjee alleged they were beaten up by policemen while being taken inside the police vehicle but her allegation was denied by the force.

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In Jadavpur, protestors belonging to the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), the youth wing of the CPI(M), met resistance from commuters as they sat in the middle of S C Mallik Road near the 8B bus stand in south Kolkata in the morning hours. They also blocked College Street- M G road crossing in north Kolkata in the evening. Earlier in the day, the busy intersection in north Kolkata and the Esplanade area in the heart of the city had been blocked for some time by members of Chhatra Parishad, the students’ wing of the Congress. Trinamool Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said "the state government has formed a SIT which is conducting a probe into Anis Khan's death in an expeditious manner. But the SFI and DYFI are indulging in cheap politics over the tragic death of a young student."

Villagers on Saturday morning launched a fierce protest before a burial ground at Amta in Howrah district preventing the special investigation team, probing the mysterious death of Anis Khan, from exhuming the body for a second post-mortem as directed by the Calcutta High Court. When the SIT went to the place at 5:30 am to exhume the body, the villagers started raising slogans against the alleged police role in the "murder" of the former student leader, who was a prominent face in the anti-CAA movement. As they surrounded the police vehicle making it difficult for the law enforcers to disembark and start the proceedings, the SIT members left the spot shortly afterwards. The West Bengal Police later tweeted on its official handle "On the direction of Hon'ble High Court, today members of SIT being accompanied by magistrate went to exhume the dead body of Anish Khan for holding further PM (post mortem) which was prevented fiercely in utter violation of order of the apex court “SIT is investigating the Anish Khan case under the directions of the Hon’ble High Court, but violent demonstrations are being organised daily at Amta PS and SP Office with the ulterior motive of derailing and delaying the investigation,” another tweet read.

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Iterating his demand for a High Court-monitored CBI probe, Salim Khan, the victim’s septuagenarian father, said he had asked the SIT to come on Monday noon. "Why did they come in such a hush-hush manner in the early morning hours? I had informed them I am ailing and will not be able to go out before Monday." Meanwhile, Sabir Khan, the brother of Anis, filed an FIR on Saturday alleging that he had received an anonymous call on February 22 midnight threatening to eliminate his family members if they insisted on a CBI probe. Anis Khan's family members have alleged that he was pushed off the second floor of their residence at Amta in Howrah district on the night of February 18 by four persons, with one donning a police uniform and the others wearing the dress of civic volunteers. Khan, the Indian Secular Front (ISF) youth leader and former member of SFI, the student wing of the CPI(M), was a prominent face of the protests in Kolkata against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). He was an alumnus of Aliah University.