Sister wants Jiban Singha to return to mainstream

 In past few weeks, Sumitra visited some other famous temples in north Bengal along with some other cadres of his outfit

Sumitra Das, the sister of Jiban Singha, at the Madanmohan temple in Cooch Behar on Monday: Picture by Main Uddin Chisti

TT Correspondent   |   Cooch Behar   | 14.02.23 : Sumitra Das, the sister of Jiban Singha, the self-styled chief of Kamtapur Liberation Organisation, reached Cooch Behar on Monday and offered puja at the famous Madanmohan temple.

“I want my brother to return to the mainstream and see that the demand, for which he organised a movement, is met. That is why I came here and offered a puja,” said Sumitra, who stays at Najiran-Deotikhata village in Baxirhat in the Cooch Behar district. The village is near the Bengal-Assam border.

In the past few weeks, Sumitra, who herself is a former KLO militant, visited some other famous temples in north Bengal, especially after Singha, along with some other cadres of his outfit, entered India from Myanmar to hold talks with the Centre. He is suspected to be staying in Assam now.

In August 2009, Sumitra and her husband Dhananjoy — who accompanied her here on Monday — were arrested from the Kokrajhar district of Assam. The duo had sneaked into the northeastern state from Chittagong in Bangladesh and were nabbed by security agencies, said reports.

“I am aware of the developments and have high hopes that my brother will be back home safely after decades. However, the administration or police here have not shared any information with us so far,” she said.   

Asked about Singha’s daughters who stay with his brother-in-law at Kumargram in Alipurduar, Sumitra said they, too, wanted their father to be back in the mainstream.

In 2017, an ambulance carrying Bharati Das, Singha’s wife and her daughters, reached North Bengal Medical College and Hospital from Nepal. At the NBMCH, doctors pronounced Bharati dead. She was apparently suffering from several ailments.