CPI(M) challenges Congress to prove murder allegation against Tripura CM Manik Sarkar

The ruling CPI-M has rubbished the opposition Congress party's allegation on Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar being either directly or indirectly involved in the assassination of his former cabinet colleague and Health Minister Bimal Sinha.

CPIM spokesperson Gautam Das, in presence of state secretary Bijan Dhar dismissing the allegation of the Congress and said, "Completely wild allegation, baseless, false and politically motivated. They can't prove their allegations in the Assembly; they will face privilege motion if they raise wild allegations in the Assembly. Knowing well they made the wild allegations outside the Assembly. We have challenged, they shall have to prove otherwise they shall have to resign from the Assembly."

Responding to the Congress party demanding for a fresh investigation by the CBI, the CPIM leader said, "why now they are demanding investigation by the CBI, why they did not go to the Yusuf Commission? The judicial commission is more than CBI, we shall have to have faith on the judiciary."

"In this murder there is direct or indirect support of the Chief Minister because Bimal Sinha was a threat to the chair of the Chief Minister. I have said this in the House that the conspiracy was laid to murder him using the militants or people would understand the reason behind it. Hence he was murdered in militant encounter. And that is the reason no CBI investigation was declared, the Yusuf Commission was not co-operated,"said leader of the opposition in the Tripura Assembly Sudip Roy Burman

He also alleged that to hush up the real truth, the Left Front government has not cooperated with the inquiry commission. The state government, headed by Chief Minister Sarkar that time, had rejected the Congress' demand to probe the assassination by the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) and judicial probe of which political parties are involved in hand-in-gloves with the militants.

Congress demanded that the Left Front government had formed the Yusuf Commission to investigate the murder of Bimal Sinha under acute pressure from the opposition and submitted it to the government some sixteen years back but it was not tabled in the Tripura Assembly till last Wednesday as the part in power was apprehensive that the actual murder involved in the case will come to light will the report becoming public.

Barman added that the wife of the deceased Minister was very much aware of those who were involved in her husbands murder but as she had death threat she could not open up the issue to the Commission.

Demanding a fresh inquiry by CBI into the former minister's killing, Barman accompanied by former opposition leader Ratan Lal Nath, state party president Birajit Sinha and other leaders alleged that Sinha was killed as he wanted to be the chief minister. The report allegedly holds that Sinha had maintained relation with the militants and their overground and was himself responsible for his death as he used to avoid taking security personnel with him on his visits to militants.

Sinha and his brother Bidyut were gunned down by the banned outfit NLFT on March 31, 1998. The Tripura state assembly on Monday witnessed bedlam over assassination of former Tripura health minister Bimal Sinha and his brother in 1998, with the opposition Congress demanding a fresh probe in it.

The pandemonium started after Speaker Ramendra Chandra Debnath rejected an adjournment motion moved by opposition leader Sudip Roy Barman. The house had to be adjourned twice due to the uproar in the house.
 The Yusuf Commission was appointed by the Left Front government in 1998 and submitted its report on January 31, 2000 but till now it was not published.

Recently following a writ petition filed by advocate Kalyani Roy, who heads the state Congress' women's wing, the Tripura High Court recently asked the state government to publish the report.(ANI)

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