Building with Morcha office sealed... 3 arrested for Police Officer murder

The notice pasted on the Morcha office

Vivek Chhetri, TT, 1 November 2017,  Darjeeling: The Darjeeling district administration has sealed a five-storied building at Singamari, which housed the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha's central committee office, after an inquiry reportedly revealed that government land was transferred to Bimal Gurung's son.

"This is government land and the government has taken possession. The record has been corrected and the building sealed," said Aveek Chatteerjee, SDO, Darjeeling.

No leader from the Gurung camp was available for comment.

Sources in the administration said land records showed that the area was leased to a tea garden company called Soso-Tara. "The land falls under Khatian 1, which means that it is a government land. The tea garden had set up a godown in the area," said an administrative source.

"After conducting hearings and an enquiry, it was found that the land was transferred to Deven Sharma (a close aide of Gurung) who in turn gifted it to Avinash Gurung, son of Bimal Gurung. The government land and property has been taken over by the administration after following due legal process," said the source.

The five-storied building housed the office of Gurung, general secretary Roshan Giri and offices of some of its frontal organisations.

The office had been locked for some time.

Officer murder arrests

The Bengal CID has arrested three Alipurduar residents in connection with the murder of police officer Amitabha Malik during a clash with suspected supporters of Gurung on October 13.

Sources said that the three were in the camps along the Little Rangeet river that the police had raided on the day of the clash. The three youths were on Wednesday remanded in 14 days' police custody.

Sources said Shyam Kami, Mahindra Kami and Dewaj Lepcha were arrested on Tuesday from Bijanbari Bazaar area in the Darjeeling hills.

Among them, Shyam, a resident of New Lands Tea Estate in Alipurduar, was named in connection with the murder of sub-inspector Malik.