The CBI moves court today seeking custody of Tripura Police Service (TPS) cadre, posted as Assistant Commandant in Tripura State Rifles (TSR) 3rd battalion Swrupananda Biswas (42) who was arrested last night in connection with murder case of journalist Sudip Datta Bhowmik in November 21, 2017 in 2nd battalion headquarters here.
Biswas was adjutant of the battalion when Sudip was hit by bullet in his presence in broad daylight. So far police arrested four persons, including the battalion commandant Tapan Debbarma, but Swrupananda was kept out of the investigation.
According to police, after three days of long grilling by CBI team, Biswas was arrested yesterday afternoon and at night he was kept in the lock up of West Agartala police station. The CBI proceeded to take him to Kolkata for further investigation. Sudip was murdered exactly two months after the brutal murder of TV journalist Shantanu Bhowmik in a political rally.
Soon after the murder, the erstwhile Left Front government had constituted a Special Investigative Team (SIT) to probe the case even as the then opposition BJP and the media fraternity demanded CBI probe. The SIT, headed by DIG Arindam Nath, had carried out investigation and the report was also submitted by the team and trial was about to start.
The BJP-IPFT combine came to power and Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb had ordered CBI probe as per its election promise. However, the CBI investigation has not made progress as yet into the case. The arrested Commandant Tapan Debbarma, considered mastermind of the case, and three other jawans are still in judicial custody.
The CBI has also been investigating the sensational murder of Shantanu Bhowmik but there is no headway yet. Bhowmik was attacked with sharp weapons during a political clash on September 20, 2017, at Mandai, about 25 km from Agartala.
The former left front government had constituted two separate special investigation teams with the officers of the state police for investigation but it was not accepted by the journalist bodies. They had argued in both the cases that since police was the prime accused then how could the same police ensure fair enquiry. Shantanu was killed in presence of police in Mandai and Sudip was shot dead in TSR camp.
The CPI (M) had directly accused the tribal based Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT), the ally of BJP in the government, of killing Shantanu but the investigation is still inconclusive. At the behest of the party in power at that time, police had erased all vital clues on the spot the and the most important points were kept out of the investigation. Finally, Shantanu’s father moved high court seeking CBI probe.
