KPP leader held for Jalpaiguri blast......Extortion finger at KPP

Nubas Burman at the Jalpaiguri court on Monday. Picture by Biplab Basak

TT, Dec. 30: Jalpaiguri police today arrested Nubas Burman, an assistant general secretary of the Kamtapur Peoples’ Party, in connection with the December 26 blast in Jalpaiguri that killed six persons.

Nubas is the second member of the KPP central committee to be picked up in the past 48 hours.

He was produced in the additional district and sessions court in Jalpaiguri and remanded in police custody for 10 days.

Yesterday, Subhash Burman, a KPP central committee member, was picked up from Malda for his alleged involvement in a case of indiscriminate firing at a bus in Malda’s Bamungola on the night of December 27.

In both the attacks, the police had named the KLO as the suspect. The KLO and KPP, though separate organisations, share the common demand of a separate Kamtapur state for Rajbangshis.

Both Subhash and Nubas have denied the charges of any involvement in the attacks and have alleged that the state government was trying to stop them from leading a democr-atic movement demanding a separate Kamtapur state.

Nubas is also one of the joint convenors of the Separate State Demand Committee — a forum of 12 regional forces based in north Bengal and Assam in favour of statehood.

He is a resident of Anda-an-Fulbari village, near Tufanganj, in Cooch Behar.

“In 2002, Nubas was arrested for having links with the KLO. He was released on bail in 2003,” said an intelligence source.

“He went into political hibernation for some time but re-surfaced last year, when the forum (Separate State Demand Committee) was set up. He was also elevated to the post of an assistant general secretary in the KPP and resumed his activities demanding a Kamtapur state,” the source added.

According to police sources, Nubas has been charged for his involvement in the Jalpaiguri blast along with Chandan Roy, a former KLO militant arrested yesterday in Mainaguri.

“I have no links with the KLO. I don’t know why I was picked up from my home in Tufanganj yesterday,” Nubas said while being taken to the courtroom from the lock-up today.

Nikhil Roy, the KPP general secretary, said: “Much like the erstwhile Left Front government, the current state government is trying to deter us from organising democratic activities. The police are slapping fake charges on our leaders and putting them behind the bars. Our central committee will hold a meeting in a day or two and chalk out plans to initiate a movement against such atrocities.”

In Malda, KPP central committee member Subhash Burman and his party colleague Falen Burman, both arrested yesterday for having direct links with the bus firing incident, were produced at the chief judicial magistrate’s court today.

Both have been remanded in 10 days’ police custody.

Satish Rajbangshi and Anindya Roy, also picked up yesterday, were sent to jail custody for 14 days.

“My father is innocent and does not have any links with KLO militant Malkhan Singh. In fact, Malkhan had planned to kill my father but the police never paid attention to the threats. They arrested my father instead,” said Smita, Subhash’s daughter.

Amit P. Javalgi, the superintendent of police, Jalpaiguri, confirmed today’s arrest and said the investigation was in progress.

“I had never attended any meeting with Malkhan. The police are trying to please the state government by arresting us. It is also an attempt to disintegrate the movement taken up by the KPP,” Subhash said.

Malda police chief Kalyan Mukherjee said: “We have arrested Subhash Burman and Falen Burman on the basis of specific evidence. On December 26, a meeting was held in Falen’s house at Jajail village in Gajole block (of Malda). Both Malkhan and Subhash were present in that meeting. When we got this input, we started looking for Falen and Subhash. ”

He added that Subhash tried to flee with his family.

“Subhash was trying to escape from the district with his family and was caught from Atul Market, the main private bus terminal in Malda,” Muk-herjee added.

TT, Siliguri, Dec. 30: The owner of a paper mill has filed a police complaint in Phansidewa saying he had got extortion calls from the Kamtapur Peoples’ Party (KPP), the revelation coming days after the KLO allegedly triggered a blast in Jalpaiguri and shot at a bus in Malda.

Kunal Aggarwal, the superintendent of police of Darjeeling, today named the KPP in the case, saying: “We have received a complaint from a paper mill owner in Phansidewa, that said he had received extortion calls in the name of the KPP. He has also informed us that a few days back, a receipt was handed to him by some local KPP leaders, asking for a donation of Rs 3,000. We are looking into the complaint and investigating the case.”

KPP president Atul Roy, asked about the call made to the businessman, said: “An extortion call cannot be made for a sum of Rs 3,000. The donation was sought for a local programme of our organisation but the manager of the industrial unit misbehaved with our local leaders and workers,” he said. “It is not an extortion of any kind and (his allegation) is simply an attempt to blemish the image of our party.”

Both the KLO and the KPP want a separate Kamtapur state and police sources said that the force was aware of several instances when the KPP sought funds from the KLO.

“Till 2003, before Operation Flushout was launched in Bhutan and top KLO leaders were arrested, money was extorted from businessmen and traders across north Bengal districts. The KLO also carried out a number of abductions in the region, collecting ransom to run the outfit,” an intelligence official said.

“As the KLO turned inactive after the operation, the trend of extortion stopped. It (the extortion calls) has, however, started again as the outfit is regrouping. The collections were, many times, done in the name of the KPP and on many occasions, the KLO-KPP nexus was evident.”

In 2011, after the Assembly polls, Parimal Roy, the KPP-backed Independent candidate who had contested the Alipurduar seat, was arrested along with Krishna Roy, a KLO linkman, for allegedly making extortion calls to a doctor. Police traced the calls to the cell phones the two had used to demand Rs 30,000 from Chandan Das, a doctor posted at the Alipurduar Junction Railway Hospital.

After KLO militant Ram Singh, alias Bharat Das, was gunned down in a police encounter in Kumargram on October 9, 2000, the cops found a letter on him that indicated a link between the militant oufit and the KPP.

“Addressed to KLO’s self-styled commander Jeevan Singh, the letter referred to a veteran KPP leader and appealed for financial aid,” a police officer said.