A day after twin blasts in Darjeeling and Kalimpong killed a civic volunteer and injured two others the police slapped charges on Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader Bimal Gurung under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) — dawning instant protest from the GJM leadership — besides working on a “larger conspiracy angle” not ruling out Maoist or North-Eastern links.
The GJM leadership wrote to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh accusing the State Government of “trying to frame” the Morcha leaders on false charges and demanding independent probe by National Investigation Agency.
What tended to surprise the police was the intensity of the IED blast at Chowk Bazar in Darjeeling. “The impact was such that it splinters created holes in iron shutters 40 meteres away and broke glass panes 40 feet above” besides being hard almost from the entire town.
The attack on Kalimpong police station where one civic volunteer was killed and two others severely injured was conducted by bike-born assailants, sources said adding the forensic remains suggested “bigger hand behind the attack.” It seemed that the both the blasts at Darjeeling and Kalimpong were the product of a single conspiracy, a senior official said.
“The police are working on various angles as it is not possible by local goons to trigger such high-intensity blasts normally done by the Maoists,” the officer said adding there were reports that Maoist leader Akash had sent some of his comrades to the area who had been working with the locals for quite some time now.
State Minister Gautam Deb said “the Government is well aware about people who were involved in the blasts and will not spare them,” even as Kalimpong SP said all police stations around the area had been alerted. “Nothing is left to chances and we are alert. All stations have been alerted and Section 144 imposed in the area.”
Meanwhile, GJM leadership wrote letter to the Union Home Minister demanding NIA probe. “We condemn the blasts and demand a probe by the NIA. But at the same time we also want the Centre to look into the conspiracy angle through which the police is trying to frame our leaders,” Swaraj Thapa party spokesperson said.
Bimal Gurung wondered how the police failed to notice the miscreants planting bomb at Chowk Bazar which was barely a few hundred metres away from the police station and the house of the Dy SP.
“In filing the FIR this early without proper investigations the Bengal Government has revealed their own hidden agenda of entrapping the GJM leadership on more trumped up charges,” Gurung wrote Singh.