KLO men freed in Dhupguri attack

Some of the KLO members after their acquittal on Friday. Picture by Biplab Basak

TT, Jalpaiguri: Thirty-three former militants of the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation who were accused of organising an attack on the CPM zonal office in Dhupguri 15 years back, were acquitted by the district and sessions court here on Friday.

On August 17, 2002, a group of armed KLO militants had barged into the CPM office with AK series rifles. They had resorted to indiscriminate firing which led to the deaths of five CPM leaders and workers.

Gopal Chaki, a member of Jalpaiguri zilla parishad, and party workers Ganesh Roy, Subodh Roy, Dulal Roy and Gopal Seal, had lost their lives. Eleven more CPM workers had sustained bullet injuries in the attack.

Police had initiated a probe after the incident and had put names of 39 militants, accused of being involved in the gruesome killing.

"They were acquitted as the prosecution could not prove the charges. Also, there was no proper witness who could identify the attackers," said Abhijit Sarkar, one of the lawyers representing the former militants.

Among those who were named in the case include Tom Adhikari, Milton Burma, Harshabardhan Das and Nityananda Das.

Somnath Pal, a government lawyer, said there were 59 witnesses from their side.

"Among them, only 14 had appeared before the court. Also, hardly any of them could identify the attackers. That is why we could not establish the charges against the accused," said Pal.

The court's order left the former militants happy, who alleged that the then Left Front government had implicated them in false cases. "During the Left rule, several false cases were framed against us. Today's acquittal from the Dhupguri attack case has proved it," said Tom Adhikary.

District CPM leaders of Jalpaiguri however, sounded disappointed.

"We have heard about the court's order and have consulted with our state leaders. It has been decided that we will move a higher court," Salil Acharya, the Jalpaiguri district CPM secretary said.