Pratul Deb murder dogs Cong nominee
-BJP asks Shipra to campaign in Katlicherra
SATANANDA BHATTACHARJEE
Roy : Tough fight ahead
Hailakandi, March 23, 2006: The BJP is not ready to
give up on the Pratul Deb murder case yet. It’s
not going to let Congress minister Gautam Roy forget
his brother-in-law’s gruesome end in a hurry
either if it has its way.
The party has invited Deb’s London-based daughter,
Shipra, to campaign for its candidate Govindalal Chatterjee
in Katlicherra who is pitted against Congress heavyweight
Gautam Roy. Roy is Shipra’s maternal uncle.
Pratul Deb, NRI businessman BJP leader, was abducted
and killed in March 2004. A CBI inquiry is on to unravel
the truth behind his murder.
Sources in the BJP said Shipra was likely to accede
to the request but has yet to confirm her presence
in the state for campaigning.
Social welfare and revenue minister Roy, a four-time
MLA from Katlicherra, is facing a stiff challenge
from the BJP in his home constituency. His son Rahul
is also in the fray contesting the elections from
the Algapur seat as a Congress nominee against sitting
MLA Asom Gana Parishad Pragatisheel’s Sahidul
Alam Choudhury.
The BJP has made the “kidnap and murder of Pratul
Deb” and “the torture of innocent Reang
and Chakma people in the name of search operation”
the prime issues in this election campaign.
Govindalal Chatterjee today said the BJP is fighting
this election to save Katlicherra from the clutches
of the Roy family. He said though the CBI has not
submitted its final report in the Pratul Deb murder
case, he was confident that the truth would come out
and hoped that the brains behind the killing would
not be spared. Chatterjee said if the Election Commission
managed to stop rigging, the defeat of Roy was almost
certain.
The CBI has repeatedly grilled Gautam Roy and his
son Rahul, over Deb’s murder.
In the 2001 election, Roy defeated the late Pratul
Deb by over 35,000 votes.
The commission has declared 66 polling booths in
Katlicherra as sensitive and 26 as hypersensitive,
out of total 165 booths. Most of the paramilitary
force personnel will be deployed in Katlicherra bordering
Mizoram, a police official said, to check booth capturing
and violence.
Though 13 candidates are in the fray in Katlicherra,
the main contest will be a triangular one among Gautam
Roy, Govindalal Chatterjee and Anil Nath of the Assam
United Democratic Front (AUDF).
Yesterday, the Election Commission observer ordered
the police to demolish an unauthorised campaign office,
in ward 4 of Laha town, 17 km from Hailakandi, belonging
to Gautam Roy. After the office was demolished, Roy
said his supporters are setting up offices without
telling him.
The election observer has also asked the inspector
of schools in Hailakandi to suspend Basir Uddin Tapadar,
headmaster of Katlicherra’s Joymongal High School,
for allowing Roy to run his campaign from there.
