People's Democracy

Trinamul Congress Goons Kill CPI(M) Worker In Birbhum

B Prasant

THE increasing desperation of the Bengal opposition, especially the Trinamul Congress, with the rural elections coming up in 2008, has resulted in yet another gruesome murder of a CPI(M) worker. Comrade Sukumar Das (42), secretary of the Kopai north local committee of the CPI(M) in the district of Birbhum has been the latest victim of the violence unleashed in the villages and hamlets of Bengal. Biman Basu, state secretary of the Bengal unit of the CPI(M) has condemned the murder.

Comrade Sukumar was in the midst of providing leadership to a fresh wave of kisan struggle in the area when he was assassinated. A school teacher, Comrade Sukumar was an active Kisan Sabha worker and had attracted the enmity of the jotdars of the area when he started to lead the struggle to identify ceiling surplus and illegal land parcels in the control and possession of the big and middle peasants who had the political backing of the strongmen in the pay of the two Congresses, Pradesh, and Trinamul.

Comrade Sukumar was on a motorbike and he was riding along a dark stretch of pathway at the Ghosalpara village in the evening of October 19 when the murderers attacked him. He had just finished a circuit of the area looking for illegal land parcels. Bombs were hurled at him, he was hit twice on the abdomen, and had his stomach ripped open. With immense fortitude and grit, Comrade Sukumar drove away some distance from the scene of the crime towards the local CPI(M) office before falling down bleeding. Thus, he was able to save the life of another CPI(M) worker who was riding pillion.

Removed to hospital later, he gave a deathbed statement indicting the two local Trinamul Congress goons, Nemai Das and Ghulam Mustafa who had hurled the bombs. Comrade Sukumar’s statement was corroborated by others who had seen the duo flee the scene. Comrade Sukumar had earned the ire of the jotdars and their political masters long back and several attempts had already been made on him over the years to kill him, noted Dilip Ganguly who heads the district unit of the Birbhum CPI(M) as its secretary. A series of rallies organised later condemned the killing and called for bringing the guilty to book early.