The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in West Bengal on Thursday began a fresh investigation into the murder of schoolteacher and anti-rape campaigner Barun Biswas fourteen years after the tragic incident.
This comes at the back of directions issued by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari after the victim’s family sought a reinvestigation into the case.
Sources said that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) could also be formed to expedite the investigation.
Barun Biswas, a Bengali teacher at Mitra Institution (Main), was shot dead near Gobardanga railway station in North 24-Parganas on 5 July 2012. The 38-year-old had emerged as a prominent voice against the infamous Sutia gang rape cases and had campaigned against alleged criminal activities in the area.
The fresh probe comes after a meeting between Barun’s elder brother Asit Biswas and sister Promila Roy with Adhikari during his ‘Janatar Darbar’ programme at the BJP state headquarters in Salt Lake last Saturday.
According to the family, Adhikari had assured them that their allegations would be examined and that the CID would reopen the investigation.
Promila Roy has alleged that after her brother’s murder, the family was repeatedly threatened and lived under constant fear. She claimed that the original investigation had failed to identify those who had allegedly masterminded the killing.
Asit Biswas alleged that the earlier CID investigation during Trinamool Congress’s tenure was incomplete and that crucial evidence had either been ignored or destroyed over the past 14 years.
He claimed that the family had repeatedly named former state minister and former Habra MLA and then Trinamool Congress North 24 Parganas observer Jyotipriya Mallick in their complaints but that investigators did not pursue those allegations.
He further alleged that the family had submitted evidence to the CID but it was not properly considered. The family also claimed that Barun Biswas had opposed alleged extortion rackets, illegal land grabbing, brick kiln operations and corruption in irrigation projects, and that his activism had made him a target. They alleged that the murder was a planned conspiracy linked to those activities.
CID officials held an internal meeting on Thursday to initiate the reinvestigation. The family said they would fully cooperate and provide all documents and evidence in their possession.