Needle of Suspicion Towards CPIM
Pran Lal
Needle of suspicion points at CPI(M) on party worker's disappearance
Abhijit Dasgupta/Calcutta
A seventy-year-old woman, who is now the focal point of the worst woman-related
scandal to have hit the CPI(M) in Bengal in the last 20 years, has now sent an
SOS to none other than Mrs Sonia Gandhi to bail her out of her crisis.
And for the first time in this country, a political scandal of this magnitude
has been put on the Internet with the last report being filed on Wednesday by
the ``Calcutta Online'' newspaper with its web address being ``calonline.com.''
Mrs Chinu Mukherjee, mother of Ms Manisha Mukherjee, who has been
``untraceable'' for the last two months, sent a fax letter to Mrs Gandhi on
Thursday evening asking for ``an audience at your convenience at your
residence... Please do look into my case and help a mother in distress as I am
told you always do.''
Mrs Mukherjee plans to go to Delhi ``once the political turmoil in Delhi is
over'' and then try and meet Mrs Gandhi. ``If she refuses to meet me, I will
sit on a dharna outside 10, Janpath till I die. This will be my last resort to
trace my daughter,'' she told the Pioneer here.
Middle-aged, attractive Manisha, who, according to her mother, was ``close to
several top CPI(M) leaders'' of Bengal, had ``hobnobbed with them,'' and ``even
campaigned for Mr Somnath Chatterjee in Bolpur.'' Manisha held a top post as
Assistant Controller (examinations) in Calcutta University and her sudden
dissappearance is being linked to her ``knowing too many secrets within the
party'' which, according to her mother, she did not like.
She had openly defied the party leadership and asked for ``explanations'' and
even wanted to dissociate herself from the party itself. ``She had at last
realised that she was going down, down and down...she came crying to me for
help. But I guess by that time, it was too late,'' she added.
Mrs Mukherjee said, ``When I last met her, she was quite distraught and told me
that `they ' were after her."
Her husband, Purnendu Roy, with whom Manisha did not share a happy
relationship, was last seen with her in a taxi near Gol Park in South Calcutta
on September 3 after which she suddenly vanished into thin air.
Mrs Mukherjee said that she had met Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, police minister
Buddhadev Bhattacharya and all the top police officials , all of whom had
``brushed aside her case'' saying that ``the matter was being looked into.''
Only two days back, an officer of the Missing Persons Squad came to meet her at
her home and asked her ``routine'' questions like ``what I ate for breakfast
and whether I loved to sing...imagine. I am sure they have killed my daughter
because she had come to know too much."
"In fact, one of the top CPI(M) leaders with whom Manisha was very friendly
even told me that it was impossible to find dead bodies in this city! And Mr
Bhattacharya asked me to come to him with `clues'! I do not understand what he
means by that. But I can understand what sort of state we are living in.''
Mrs Mukherjee further wondered why Purnendu had not even been questioned once
as also one of his friends, Rishi Roy Choudhury, who had last spoken to her in
the taxi. Her husband had got off earlier. Rishi is on record as having said
that Manisha had told her that she would be back after some shopping. ``She
never returned but the police has not even grilled this man either.''
Mrs Mukherjee said that there was an ``attempt'' to make it appear as if
Manisha was not ``mentally okay'' when she disappeared. ``Then was it normal
for her husband and Rishi to have let go of her and should not the police book
them for that only?''
She said, ``But after all this hue and cry, why isn't the CPI(M) coming out
with any rejoinder? Why is the party silent? Should I take this as acceptance
of guilt? If Narasimha Rao can be questioned, then why not top CPI(M) leaders?
Are they more equal than even our former Prime Minister?''
Repeating that she was convinced that the CPI(M) had ``bumped Manisha off,''
Mrs Mukherjee read out the fax that she was sending to Ms Gandhi. ``It is with
great distress that I have taken the courage to write to you. I have taken up
this pen as a woman and more as a mother who has lost her only daughter because
of political machinations by the Left Front Government...she was now trying to
get out of the quagmire of politics....obviously, she had come to know too
much....I have taken up the case with the Congress here and have sought not
their political but human help.
The PCC chief, Mr Somen Mitra, has already written to the Governor and the
chief minister and Mr Madan Mitra, secretary of the PCC who is also a founder
secretary of the Rajiv Gandhi Memorial Society here has given me moral support.
They have said that during my meeting with you, which I am sure you will agree
to, they will be by my side if required....You, Madam, are my last hope. Like
me, you too have suffered untimely loss; it is your regal fortitude which has
provided me the strength to withstand the indignity and suffering....''
On the other hand, CPI(M) leaders were categorical in their denial about having
anything to do with Manisha's disappearance. One top CPI(M) leader said, ``She
was a party member, but not a party wholetimer. We take total care of the
well-being of wholetimers. We cannot possibly keep track of the movements of
the lakhs of party members. But we are concerned and the government apparatus
has been fully geared up to trace her. There is no murky dealing in all this.
She had her own life to lead...''
nachiketa
Abhijit Mitra
Those CPM people are a bunch of dogs... all I can say is, I pray and I hope
that shes ok...
sabysa...@gmail.com
> Those CPM people are a bunch of dogs... all I can say is, I pray and I hope
> that shes ok...