By PTI
KOLKATA: The father of student leader Anis Khan, whose mysterious death has triggered protests across West Bengal, on Friday said he could not spot the man who had come to his house in police uniform on the night the student leader was allegedly killed, at the test idenitication (TI) parade conducted during the day as per the order of Calcutta High Court.
Salim Khan, a septugenarian, went to the correctional home at Uluberia where the arrested two in the case – a home guard and a civic volunteer – were kept and subjected to the identification process.
TI parade is the drill in which the victim or his family are made to identify the accused in a crime.
Khan, who had approached the HC for an enquiry by an independent agency and not by the special investigating team appointed by the government, was accompanied by his lawyer.
The court had on Thursday allowed the SIT probe under strict monitoring.
After the TI parade he told waiting reporters, “I could not spot the person from the two presented before me. The man in police uniform police who had come to my house on that fateful night of February 18 was not there.”
Voicing displeasure, he said “I am not happy with the SIT investigation. I want court monitored CBI probe.”
On his return Khan met a delegation of Left Front leaders at his residence and iterated his demand.
CPI-M state secretary Suryakanta Mishra, senior party leader Rabin Deb and Left Front Chairman Biman Bose were among those who met the bereaved father.
They went to the second floor of Khan’s house from where Anis, a former SFI leader and a prominent anti-CAA protestor was allegedly thrown out.
His family had alleged that Anis had been thrown out from there by four policemen from Amta police station who had forced themselves into his house in the midnight of February 18.
There is an unfinished structure with windows having no grill in the second floor.
They claimed that his body was seen lying outside the house and rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced brought dead.
The local police station was informed but policemen arrived the next day.
The Left leaders did not talk to the waiting reporters present at the house.
CPI-M Rajya Sabha MP Bikash Bhattacharya had said that the incident was a brutal one and that Anis had been killed in “cold blood”.
The high level probe into the incident should not be influenced by the state police, he had said after the incident.
Meanwhile, activists of Left student and youth bodies Friday scuffled with the police in south Kolkata demanding high level probe into the alleged killing of Khan and about 100 of them were taken into preventive custody.
SFI state general secretary Srijan Bhattacharya was among those detained by the police during the protest at the crossing of Rasbehari Avenue and Asutosh Mukherjee Road near Kalighat metro station.
They were bundled into waiting police vehicles as they refused to leave the spot.
“The police cannot find the true killers of Anis even after a week but loses no time to crush a democratic movement of students,” Bhattacharya said while being forced into a police vehicle.
He said the protestors wanted to peacefully go to the CID headquarters at Bhabani Bhavan after assembling at Rasbehari crossing, but the police took over the area.
A police official said around 100 Left activists were taken to custody as they obstructed vehicular movement and refused to budge from the spot despite being repeatedly asked to do so.
He said the police used minimum force to disperse the activists and its women force were present in large numbers at the spot.
SFI and DYFI activists also overturned the metal barricade outside the police station at Amta, where Anis lived, accusing some of the personnel posted at the police station for being responsible for the death of the former SFI leader who had recently joined Indian Secular Front.
A police officer said two policemen suffered minor injuries in stone pelting by the mob.
In Jadavpur University in the city, teachers took out a rally inside the campus demanding speedy, impartial and high level probe in the death of the former student leader of Aliah University and a prominent face in anti-CAA protest.
Jadavpur University Teachers Association secretary Partha Pratim Roy said many non-teaching employees also attended the rally.
SFI members in Jadavpur and Presidency universities too organised protests in the two campuses and at the entrance gates in protest against the death.
In another protest at Nonapukur area, members of Congress’ student wing protested on A J C Bose Road demanding fair and impartial probe in the death of the Aliah University alumnus.
There was, however, no untoward incident.
Student bodies have been staging protests across the city since the mysterious death of the student leader at his Amta residence on February 19 midnight.
It was alleged that he was killed by a section of local police for his continued protests against alleged corruption by some politicians belonging to TMC and their nexus with some policemen of Amta.
West Bengal government formed a SIT to probe the death and two persons – a home guard and a civic volunteer – were arrested by the SIT.
Calcutta High Court has taken suo moto cognisance of the incident and has asked the special investigation team to submit its report to it in two weeks and for a second mortem after exhuming the body.
