CPI-M leaders get bail in Tapasi Malik murder case

KOLKATA - Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Suhrid Dutta and party activist Debu Malik, who were last year sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Tapasi Malik in Singur, were Wednesday granted bail by the Calcutta High Court.

A two-member division bench comprising Justice Pranab Chattopadhyay and Justice Asim Roy sanctioned the bail plea but asked Dutta and Malik to furnish two sureties of Rs.10,000 each and barred them from leaving Singur police station area without the court’s permission.

Following the court order, CPI-M activists took out huge rallies in Hooghly district.

‘We knew that both Suhrid Dutta and Debu Malik will get bail in Tapasi Malik murder case as the entire allegation was absolutely wrong. It was just a fabricated case against the CPI-M duo to malign our image,’ CPI-M state secretary Biman Bose told reporters in Purulia.

He said Dutta, the party’s Hooghly district leader, and Malik were innocent and they had no connection with Tapasi Malik’s murder.

‘The truth cannot be kept under wraps,’ Bose added.

Eighteen-year-old Tapasi’s burnt body was found inside the fenced area of Tata Motors’ small car Nano factory in Singur Dec 18, 2006.

Dutta, CPI-M’s Singur zonal committee secretary and the prime accused in the case, was found guilty by the fast track court at Chandannagar in Hooghly district for masterminding the murder and criminal conspiracy.

CPI-M worker Malik was also convicted on charges of murder, criminal conspiracy and manipulating evidence in the murder case.

Tapasi from Bajemelia village in Singur, about 40 km from here, was an active member of the opposition Trinamool Congress-led Singur Krishiami Jiban Jibika Raksha Committee (Save Farmland Committee) that was protesting land acquisition for the Nano project.

A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe was ordered to investigate her death. The Trinamool Congress blamed the ruling CPI-M for the murder.

Condemning CPI-M’s role in the murder, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee said the people in Singur would take out protest rallies in Hooghly district, demanding punishment for the CPI-M duo who were granted bail Wednesday.

‘Rallies would be taken out under the banner of Singur Krishiami Jiban Jibika Raksha Committee,’ she said.

Tata Motors withdrew the Nano project from Singur last year in face of spiralling protests against land acquisition.