Rights body ruling on Friday

KOLKATA: The West Bengal Human Rights Commission will be ready on Friday with its recommendations on action to be taken in the Rizwanur Rahman case.

Commission authorities made it clear on Monday that there were discrepancies in what police commissioner Prasun Mukherjee said at the press conference and what he later said in his nine-page report to the commission. "What was shown on television is different from what the commissioner said in his report. We have sought clippings from all television channels to get to the bottom of the matter," WBHRC secretary Brojo Behari Mahapatra said.

Mukherjee’s report is part of the comprehensive report submitted by chief secretary Amit Kiran Deb to WBHRC. The 150-page WBHRC report contains CID’s interim report, a copy of the writ petition filed in Calcutta High Court and a report by the chief secretary himself.

"This report was placed before the commission’s full bench on Monday. On the basis of this, recommendations on action to be taken will be made on Friday," Mahapatra said.

During the day, the CID recorded statements of 12 guards and drivers of trains (six of them that left Sealdah between 9.57 and 10.30 am on September 21, the day Rizwanur was killed on the tracks between Dum Dum and Bidhannagar railway station) that passed the spot where Rizwanur’s body was found.

The driver and guard of BS1 Up Sealdah-Burdwan local — who reportedly saw the body— however, were not questioned as their statements have been recorded earlier. According to CID officers, the drivers and guards of the two local trains that passed the spot immediately after the Burdwan local said they had seen the body lying between tracks 2 and 3.

The driver and guard of the the BS1 Up Burdwan local have virtually gone into hiding. Eastern Railway officers have directed them not to meet the press or discuss the matter. The BB513 Sealdah-Bongaon local, which passed the spot a few minutes before the Burdwan local, did not report the body. But the CSH 611 Sealdah-Hasnabad local, which passed just after BS1 Up, did.

Though the driver and guard of the BS1 Up Burdwan local have repeatedly said that Rizwanur was not knocked down by their train, senior railway officers do not know what to believe. "Drivers or guards don’t always report that they have knocked down someone. This is a sensitive case and we would not like our staff to get into trouble," a senior officer said.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com