Tamang’s widow meets Buddhadeb, demands justice

KOLKATA - Demanding justice, slain All India Gorkha League president Madan Tamang’s wife Bharati met West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee here Wednesday and expressed dissatisfaction with the probe into her husband’s murder.

After leading a 10-member party delegation to meet the chief minister at the state secretariat, Bharati told reporters that Bhattacharjee asked her to be patient and have faith in the state police’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which is investigating the case.

Bharati was dissatisfied as not a single person named in the first information report (FIR) had been arrested so far, said a government official. She also discussed the present situation in Darjeeling with the chief minister.

Bhattacharjee assured the delegation that more central forces would be deployed in the Darjeeling Hills of northern West Bengal and measures taken to dismantle all the Gorkhaland Personnel (GLP) camps.

“The meeting was fruitful. The chief minister assured us of every kind of help and promised that all people involved in the crime would be arrested soon,” Bharati said after the meeting.

State Director General of Police Bhupinder Singh said: “The accused persons have fled to Nepal after committing the crime. A few of them were recently spotted in Kathmandu.”

“In the FIR, the Tamang family members have accused top leaders of the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) of hatching the plot. Though senior leaders are in Darjeeling, we cannot arrest them because of lack of evidence,” he added.

Tamang, 64, who led the anti-GJM Democratic Front in the Darjeeling Hills, died of stomach and shoulder injuries after he was attacked with a khukri, a long knife used by Nepalis, and swords in Darjeeling May 21.