SC seeks state, CBI reply in Tamang case

madan tamangb

TT; New Delhi, Dec. 3: The Supreme Court today sought responses from the CBI and the Bengal government to the plea for a fresh probe by a special investigation team into the murder of ABGL president Madan Tamang. The court asked the CBI and the state to file their replies in four weeks on the petition filed by Bharati Tamang, the widow of the slain Gorkha leader, who alleged that the probes conducted by the CBI and the police were “tainted, biased and malafide”.

 She also demanded that the chargesheets filed by the two agencies be quashed. Tamang was stabbed to death allegedly by a group of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporters armed with khukuris in Darjeeling on May 21, 2010. Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and Justices S.S. Nijjar and J. Chelameswar also asked the CID and Darjeeling police to file the replies.

 Bharati urged the court to appoint a special investigation team comprising “officers of impeccable integrity” to conduct a fresh inquiry into the conspiracy and murder of Tamang, saying the probe by the CBI and the CID had suppressed vital information. Appearing for Bharati, senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi, said the SIT must be appointed as “police failed to arrest, interrogate and arraign the accused persons named in the complaint and the FIR lodged which was vital for establishing the extent of the conspiracy to commit the murder”. Bharati accused the Centre and the state of trying to protect Morcha leaders in the case. She alleged that GTA chief executive Bimal Gurung and his wife Asha were behind the conspiracy.