Kolkata: A retired IPS officer, who allegedly committed suicide last week, has blamed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for his death, a charge that has been dismissed by the state’s ruling TMC as “baseless”. In a 6-page letter to the chief minister, Gaurav Chandra Dutt, who retired earlier this year, accused Mamata of abetting his suicide by keeping him “compulsory waiting” for posting.
The 1986 batch IPS officer also alleged he was “harassed and tortured in devious ways” by various state institutions at the behest of the chief minister. “Thus, my self-imposed death sentence should give you peace of mind and happiness and may this act result in sinful reactions which will cleanse you and awaken in other senior police officers, some compassion and empathy, which is sadly lacking today,” Dutt’s letter to Banerjee read.
“My act (of suicide) is a symbolic protest against the dirty games of the ruling government which picks and chooses honest, hardworking officers like me and Nazrul Islam IPS and destroys them systematically and makes an example for others who are not servile/ subservient enough,” it said. Copies of the letter were also sent to some senior government officials, and have been accessed by the PTI.
Though Banerjee could not be immediately reached for comments, Jyotipriya Mallick, the state’s food and civil supplies minister, trashed the accusations. “This is nonsense. There is no substance in it. We are not interested in the matter,” Mallick told PTI. State BJP president Dilip Ghosh, however, smelt a conspiracy behind Dutt’s death and sought a speedy probe to “unravel” the truth.
“I think there is a conspiracy behind this (Dutt’s death). He has targeted the chief minister. A neutral probe must be initiated. I am sceptical about how much the state police will be able to do because they are under tremendous pressure from the top level.
I demand a neutral agency should conduct the enquiry,” he said. Mukul Roy, once a close Banerjee aide who quit the party and joined the BJP, sought a CBI probe into Dutt’s death. “This is a very sensitive matter. A very senior IPS officer has accused the chief minister of abetting his suicide.
I am not very confident that the state police will be holding a fair probe. I want a CBI investigation,” Roy told PTI on phone from New Delhi. The officer had a chequered past. He was suspended for nine months in 2010 for “conduct unbecoming of an officer” after a constable’s wife accused him of torturing her husband as he spurned his “sexual advances”. He also faced disciplinary action in 2012 over alleged financial irregularities.
