State government makes solving Anis Khan death case a priority

The biggest protest was at Amta in Howrah where the 27-year-old was found dead past Friday midnight

Anis Khan.: File photo

Kinsuk Basu   |   TT  |  Calcutta   |   21.02.22  : The director-general of state police Manoj Malviya on Sunday summoned Saumya Roy, the superintendent of police of Howrah (rural) and sought a report on Anis Khan’s death even as protests against alleged police inaction in probing into the death of the former Aliah University student erupted across districts.

The biggest protest was at Amta in Howrah where the 27-year-old was found dead past Friday midnight.

Senior officers in the home department said the move by the director-general of the state police to summon Roy and seek a report betrayed the government’s earnestness to unravel the truth behind Anis's death under mysterious circumstances.

Anis, who was also a student leader, was found dead near his house in Amta past Friday midnight. His father alleged that four policemen who had barged into the house looking for their son threw his son off the rooftop. Three of them were civic volunteers and the fourth in police uniform from the local Amta police station, he claimed.

The officer-in-charge of Amta police station said no team was sent to Anis's house on Friday night.

The government has appointed an officer of the rank of deputy superintendent of police for probe, a move apparently aimed at allying fears of half-baked investigation into the death of the former student by some people critical of the state government's role in probing into the death so far.

“The state government wants no alteration of truth while investigating into this particular case,” said a senior official of the home department. “Usually a sub-inspector of police is assigned to investigate into such a death case. Here, a very senior officer has been put on the job.”

Officers in the know said Roy has been asked to submit a status report of the probe within 72 hours with the police brass at Bhabani Bhavan.

The developments in the police corridors in Calcutta had little impact in Amta where hundreds poured out on the road leading to Anis’s house on Sunday morning and allegedly stopped a police team on their way to visit the site where Anis was found dead. Seething in anger over why it took over a day-and-a-half for the police to turn up, villagers vented their frustration at the team, forcing the officers to return to Amta police station.

Hours later, police managed to reach the house with a team of forensic experts who spent over an hour collecting samples from bloodstains after identifying the spot on the ground where Anis was found dead.

Senior police officers said forensic examination was a vital in this case since the post-mortem report would only reveal if the death was due to a fall from a height or not.

“Forensic report will reveal the point of fall and the spot where he touched the ground. This is usually linear at 90 degrees if the fall is obstacle-free,” said a senior scientist of the state forensic laboratory.

“The forensic report will lead to unearthing of circumstantial evidence which is now missing,” the scientist said.

Officers said forensic findings will unravel several questions including whether Anis had to run before the jump and if so what was the trigger.

In the complaint filed with Amta police station on Saturday Anis’s father Salam Khan wrote in Bengali that a cruel and illegal act of police led to the incident of my son's death.

Some residents of Amta said all these developments on Sunday were just to cover up the truth.