Kolkata, June 13 (IANS) The Calcutta High Court on Thursday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to include the name of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) supremo Bimal Gurung in the case relating to the murder of environment activist and All India Gorkha League (AIGL) leader Madan Tamang in 2010.
On May 21, 2010, Madan Tamang was attacked by three assassins, led by the prime accused Nicole Tamang and was hacked to death with ‘patangs’ (small Gorkha daggers). Although Nicole Tamang was arrested by Darjeeling police, he managed to escape from custody. Later, the CBI took over the investigation and filed a charge sheet against 48 individuals, including Bimal Gurung and his wife Asha Gurung and GJM leader Roshon Giri, among others.
However, in 2017, a lower court provided relief to Gurung, directing that his name be expunged from the charge sheet. However, Tamang’s wife Bharati Tamang approached the Calcutta High Court challenging the order.
After a prolonged hearing in the matter for around seven years, the Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Subhendu Samanta on Thursday directed the inclusion of Gurung’s name in the case.
In his order, Justice Samanta held that the lower court judge had committed an error by separating/segregating Gurung from other accused persons. The judge also observed that it is quite impermissible to discharge an accused from a criminal case where his name is directly stated by the available witnesses regarding his involvement in the alleged offence.
“Bimal Gurung was cited as a leader of other Accused Persons. Thus complicity against Bimal Gurung has been sufficiently established at this stage,” read the order, a copy of which is available with IANS.
–IANS
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