Mugwop
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was a 30-year-old computer graphics trainer who committed suicide according to the police, but is believed to have been murdered by his in-laws after marrying Priyanka Todi, daughter of billionaire Industrialist ashok todi.
Rizwanur Rahman, a middle-class man, met the 23-year-old Priyanka Todi, daughter of Ashok Todi, owner of Lux Cozi, at the graphics training school where he taught. They began an affair, which was kept secret from their families.
It is believed that on 18 August 2007, the two secretly married according to the Special Marriage Act to which a few close friends and colleagues of Rizwanur were witnesses.The two families were not informed about the marriage and no witnesses were declared in the case later on.
After the ceremony, Priyanka went back to the Todi family, and Rizwanur continued his work at the multi-media centre. In late August, Rizwanur Rahman approached his brother and confessed to having secretly married. On 31 August, he brought Priyanka home to his family's small apartment in a working class Muslim neighbourhood.He and Priyanka signed and sent a letter to the police asking for protection from her father.
Later, Priyanka would say: "My mind was a blank... I was just signing whatever letters Rizwan was telling me to sign. I once told him we shouldn’t mention my father, but he said Pappu and Rukbanur had insisted that we frame the letters like that and they knew best.
It is alleged that Priyanka's father, Ashok Todi, and the Todi family were displeased that Priyanka had married into a lower income family, and Rahman, being a Muslim, exacerbated their displeasure. It has also been alleged that Rahman was told to "remove himself" from Priyanka's life and was also threatened by various fronts for this inter-religious marriage.On 31 August, Priyanka and Rahman notified the authorities that they were staying together at Rahman's house.
Allegations of police harassment and mental torture
It has been alleged that due to an understanding with the Todi family, top level police officers of the state summoned the couple several times to State Police Headquarters at Lalbazar, Kolkata, and threatened Rahman of dire consequences if he did not separate from his wife. The couple refused. On 8 September, eight days after Rahman's marriage was certified, the police summoned Rahman again and threatened to have him arrested on charges of abduction if he did not return his legal wife to his in-laws, even though no official case was registered against him. Rahman was also accused of stealing a cell phone and other items from the Todi mansion. In a letter allegedly written by Rahman to an NGO before his death, he stated that he was ready to convert to Hinduism in exchange for a peaceful married life.
It is alleged that after police coercion, Rahman was forced to send Priyanka to the Todi house for a week that same day. One of Priyanka's uncles, who was present at the police headquarters, signed an agreement on plain paper in front of a police witness that Priyanka would be sent back to Rahman's house after 7 days, on 15 September, but this was never done. Finally a CBI probe has judged that he had committed suicide and they plan to charge Mr Todi with abetment of suicide
Last days
At her father's house, Priyanka Todi spoke to Rahman for the last time on 11 September. On 15 September, Rahman tried calling Priyanka but was refused permission to speak to her by her parents. On 18 September, a witness to their marriage was threatened with arrest by the police for "forcing Priyanka into marriage".
On 19 September, Priyanka, still not sent back, Rahman filed a case with an NGO, documenting police harassment. According to his diary and conversations with close friends, he was also planning further legal moves to get his wife back.Rahman died in the afternoon of 21 September, about 2 weeks after his wife was forcefully separated from him. His body was found lying beside a railway line, with hands folded over his chest and a deep wound on the back of his head.After his death, Priyanka met a state Women's Commission delegation and told them that: "There was no police pressure on me" and that "no police officer ill-treated me"
High Court ruling and transfer of the suspected officers
On 16 October 2007, the High Court ruled that the Rizwanur death investigation carried out by the State Government is illegal, and ordered a Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) enquiry.On 17 October 2007, under intense pressure from the civil society, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya stated that all five suspected police officers, including the commissioner, Prasun Mukherjee, and deputy commissioners Gyanwant Singh and Ajay Kumar, who were fully aware that Rizwanur did not commit any crime according to law, but still actively participated in the threatening and torturing due to some understanding with Ashok Todi, will be transferred from their current posts with immediate effect. He also agreed to run a CBI enquiry according to the High Court ruling and said that if the transferred police officers are found guilty by the CBI, they will be punished according to law."what a joke pamella geller can provide better justice than this
Politicians' statements and rioting
The prominent Communist Party of India (Marxist) Politburo member Brinda Karat has stated that
"Police officers here were transferred over the death of Rizwanur Rahman in keeping with the "progressive culture" that existed in West Bengal. ..We are with Rizwanur Rahman’s family and want justice and action against those found guilty [of involvement in the death of the computer graphics teacher]"
In a statement dated 15 October, State Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), Mr Soumen has stated:
"Rizwanur was murdered as he had dared to fall in love and later marry a Hindu girl ..The chief minister is not able to shield the guilty officers of Kolkata Police because of the public outrage against administrative high-handedness."
Front partner Communist Party of India (CPI) has issued a state secretariat resolution stating:
“The youth was said to be well educated, decent and belonged to a cultured family. His unnatural death has shaken a large number of people. The public outrage following his death should not be undermined. The intervention of the Kolkata police in a marriage between two adults was not a healthy signal."
Kshiti Goswami of the Revolutionary Socialist Party demanded a judicial inquiry into the matter. Forward Bloc Secretary Ashok Ghosh described the incident as "shocking and shameful". He said an inquiry commission should be instituted immediately so that the Kolkata police cannot influence investigations into Rehman’s death.
All India Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee visiting the Rizvanur's family and held the city police directly responsible for the death. It organised a public rally in the city where Ms Banerjee and Rizwanur's relatives accused the CPI(M) leadership of "offering money" to them to hush up the case. Mamata Banerjee has said:
It has been 23 days since Rizwanur died. Today is the holy day of Id and we have been out greeting people on the occasion of Id. But in this neighbourhood no one is celebrating Id for obvious reasons. There have been no arrests and no progress in the case, "the foolish arrogant chief minister is thinking whether it is the right protocol for him to go and see the mother of the murdered son.
Final verdict
According to the CBI probe, the cause of death of Rizwanur was suicide. However the CBI charged Priyanka's father Ashok Todi, her uncle Pradip Todi, maternal uncle Anil Saraogi, three police officers—former deputy commissioner Ajoy Kumar, ACP Sukanti Chakraborty, sub-inspector Krishnendu Das, and Mohiuddin alias Pappu, who acted as a link between cops and the Todis, with abetment to suicide of Rahman.The CBI framed chargesheet against them for non-bailable criminal proceedings. The CBI also recommended departmental proceedings against former Kolkata Police commissioner Prasun Mukherjee and administrative proceedings against former DC Gyanwant Singh for interfering in the marriage of two consenting adults.
On 13 October 2008, the Supreme Court of India stopped all proceedings in the Rizwanur Rahman case till the Calcutta High Court decided Ashok Todi's petition challenging CBI's chargesheet against him.
On 11 February 2009, Arindam Manna, the Government Railway Police officer who started the probe into the death of Rizwanur, was found murdered beside a railway track, a considerable distance away from his work place.
....dont blame others when his own brother did nothing .......
