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Murders expose murky Marxist politics

Arup Chanda in Calcutta

Factionalism and nepotism within the Communist Party of India-Marxist in West Bengal have reached such dangerous proportions that party leaders are allegedly hiring professional killers to silence their adversaries .

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday arrested a CPI-M local committee secretary and zonal committee member, Babul Deb, from Habra in North 24 Parganas district, adjoining Calcutta. He has been charged with murdering his party member, Kartick Mondal.

The incident has exposed the murky politics within the party and has shocked the CPI-M's West Bengal headquarters. With reports that the party bosses were aware of the facts doing the rounds, there seems to be no way of hushing up the scandal.

However, such is Deb's clout with the party leadership that he is yet to be expelled or suspended from the CPI-M.

West Bengal CPI-M leaders are tightlipped over the issue while CPI-M central committee member and West Bengal Home Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya would comment 'later' on the issue.

The cause of Mondal's murder and the way it was carried out are similar to that of Bombay supari killings.

This has exposed the nexus between a section of CPI-M leaders and criminals in West Bengal and the extent to which they can go for monetary gains.

Mondal was stabbed innumerable times near his home while returning home from work at night. As he fell down bleeding, the assailants thought he was dead till one of them noticed that he was trying to sit up. They came back and stabbed him a number of times more.

The police arrived on the scene after some time. But instead of rushing Mondal to the hospital, they took him to the police station.

At midnight the victim's father, Rasik Mondal came to know of the attack on his son and went to the Habra police station where the CPI-M leader's dead body was lying.

Seated next to the officer-in-charge of the police station was Babul Deb. Since then Deb had been a constant companion of the police whenever it investigated Mondal's murder.

The local people had then alleged Deb's hand behind the murder. He was allegedly involved in a lottery scam and had amassed huge wealth despite being a clerk in a local school. Mondal had threatened to expose Deb unless he came clean with the accounts. Before his death, Mondal had expressed apprehensions to other CPI-M members.

The local CPI-M men had informed the higher-ups but no action was taken against Deb who continued to occupy a seat next to the officer-in-charge in the Habra police station and control the investigation of a murder that he had allegedly planned.

When the police failed to arrest a single culprit in the case, about 1,000 people from the area moved the Calcutta high court and sought a CBI inquiry. The court ordered a CBI inquiry into Mondal's murder last April.

This is the first time that even CPI-M supporters have displayed their lack of confidence in an administration run by their own party and demanded a probe by a central government agency.

However, the party mandarins at the Alimuddin Street headquarters have kept quiet.

Deb was confident because of the patronage he enjoyed from a powerful CPI-M minister and even deputed a CPI-M MP to influence the CBI sleuths.

According to CBI sources, Deb had allegedly hired two professional assassins to murder Mondal and paid them Rs 30,000 to carry out the task.

The breakthrough in the case came when the CBI arrested a criminal, Sambhu Seal. He broke down and admitted before his interrogators that Deb had hired him and Bidyut Sardar to kill Mondal. The CBI then arrested another CPI-M leader, Suresh Modak, a close associate of Deb.

Deb was so confident that he would remain untouched that he himself went to the CBI office when he was called for interrogation. The CBI officers made him sit face to face with his comrade, Suresh Modak and after interrogating them together, arrested Deb.

The CBI raid at Deb's home revealed that, besides a fleet of vehicles, he had the latest electronic gadgets. A large number of incriminating documents which indicated his huge bank balance and investments were seized.

It is not unknown to the CPI-M leaders how he could possess such wealth. But, because of factionalism in the party, no steps were taken against Deb.

It is for these reasons that the CPI-M Politburo has made it mandatory for all party office-bearers to submit a statement of their income and assets. But the entire exercise might be futile as comrades like Deb always manage to find a godfather in the party to protect themselves.

Factionalism leading to killings is nothing new in the CPI-M. Ever since the party came to power in West Bengal in 1977 more than one hundred party members have allegedly died because of inner party feuds.

Last year, in the industrial belt of Durgapur, another brutal murder of a local CPI-M leader, Ashish Goswami, was committed. Irate CPI-M supporters allegedly torched around 150 houses.

However, investigations revealed that the main accused, Amal Goswami, who happens to be the victim's cousin, was also a CPI-M member and had fallen out with him over large sums of money they allegedly extorted from illegal coal transporters. Amal switched his loyalty to the Trinamul Congress and allegedly got Ashish murdered.

The murder of an old party member, Sushil Chowdhury, who was a bachelor, still remains unsolved.

Chowdhury was an accountant at the state party headquarters and was privy to a lot of financial secrets. It is believed he was murdered because he came to know of many financial irregularities involving many party bigwigs.

All these murders because of inner party feuds point out one thing -- the main reason is not difference of political opinion or rivalry but allegedly sharing of the spoils. The CPI-M is realising the price it has to pay for remaining in power for so long in West Bengal.

EARLIER REPORT:
Corruption makes CPI-M politburo see red

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