Mamata doubts West Bengal shootout’s genuineness

KOLKATA - Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee Saturday expressed doubt over the genuineness of a shootout in which a prime accused in the Gyaneshwari Express sabotage case was killed in West Bengal’s West Midnapore district.

Pro-Maoist leader Umakanta Mahato was killed in a gunfight with joint security forces in a forest area of Jhargram Friday.

While questioning the shootout’s genuineness, Banerjee accused the West Bengal government of masterminding killings to remove evidence related to the May 18 train sabotage that left 148 people dead.

A day after the police claimed that Mahato was killed in a gun battle at Mohanpur forest in West Midnapore district, Banerjee said: “The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has started its operation (investigation in the case). The CBI has declared some people as wanted (to face questioning). Now it is being said he (Umakanta) is dead. Thus, evidence (in the case) has been removed.”

However, Banerjee did not take Umakanta’s name.

“I don’t know how a state government, which is masterminding such things, can act in this way,” the Trinamool Congress chief said at a rally organised by the students’ wing of the party here.

Umakanta, a leader of the pro-Maoist body People’s Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA), had been eluding the police since the Mumbai-bound Gyaneshwari Express derailment that took place after a portion of the tracks was sabotaged allegedly by rebels.

A speeding freight train then rammed into five derailed coaches, resulting in 148 deaths.

The CBI, probing the case, announced a reward of Rs.1 lakh for information leading to his arrest.

This is the second time this month that Banerjee has suggested that some rebel leaders died in fake encounters.

While addressing a rally at the Maoist hotbed of Lalgarh in West Midnapore Aug 9, Banerjee expressed her suspicion about the death of Maoist politburo leader Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad in a shootout and demanded an inquiry into his “murder”.

Her comments not only embarrassed the central government but also led to a united opposition raising a storm in parliament.

The government has maintained that Azad, the number three in the banned Communist Party of India-Maoist hierarchy, was killed in a police shootout in Andhra Pradesh July 2.