Binay claims 4 murder bids

RAJEEV RAVIDAS, TT, Kalimpong, Oct. 11: Rebel Gorkha Jamukti Morcha leader Binay Tamang today claimed that Bimal Gurung had made four attempts to finish him off and that was why he had chosen to accept the security offered by the state government.

Tamang, who arrived here today for the first time after falling out with the Morcha president, said he was really hurt, especially since he had spent 13 years with Gurung during which he had done nothing against him.

"For 13 years, I remained with daju (elder brother), never did I do any wrong to him. I treated him like my own brother," he said.

Tamang said he initially refused to believe that Gurung was trying to eliminate him till he listened to a taped conversation where the Morcha chief was allegedly heard putting a price on his head. "I will give Rs 5 lakh before the task, and another Rs 5 lakh after the job is done," is what Gurung is alleged to have told the person he had asked to hire men from Nepal to kill Tamang.

"First I didn't believe, and then I felt sad," Tamang added.

It was after listening to that conversation taped by police that, Tamang said, he agreed to take the security offered by the state government. "Otherwise, I was not in favour of keeping it (the security cover)," he said.

The rebel Morcha leader cited three more instances of Gurung contacting people to get him killed. In one instance, boys from Tukvar, the Morcha president's stronghold near Darjeeling, were asked to torch Tamang's house and ensure that his entire family was killed. "On not less than four occasions, he had tried to do this to me. What should have been my response?" Tamang asked.

He was addressing around 1,000 supporters on the compound of the Deolo Tourist Lodge, 5km from here.

Tamang entered Kalimpong in a convoy of over 200 vehicles.

Tamang did not spare Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri either, accusing him of being one of the persons responsible for derailing the Gorkhaland movement.

"I don't want to reveal the names now, but there are seven persons mainly responsible for the trouble we had to face and for derailing this movement. Roshan Giri is one of the culprits in derailing the movement. He is the general secretary of the party. The second-in-command should not have betrayed us in this manner," he said, while accusing him of not being transparent in sharing the details of his interactions in Delhi.

Tamang iterated that he remained committed to the cause of Gorkhaland.