West Bengal: Who killed Anis Khan and why?

Kolkata has been known as a city of protests with people in large numbers hitting the streets at the slightest provocation. This week different parts of the city were in turmoil as students and Left groups demanded justice for Anis Khan (28), who was found dead with head injuries last Friday night outside his home in a village in Howrah, 55 kilometres from the city.

Nobody still knows why Anis Khan was killed and by whom, though the family has blamed the local police for the murder. Suspension of two ‘civic police volunteer’ homeguard and ‘arrest’ of two suspects by the Special Investigating Team (SIT) have lent credence to the bereaved family’s allegation that Anis was killed by the police. But the motive remains a mystery.

The deceased’s father claims to have found a group of people, one of them in police uniform, at the door past midnight last Friday looking for Anis. They pushed their way in and went up to the third floor. They left after some time. As the family gathered together, Anis was found dead, lying outside the house with head injuries. The family believes he was pushed down from the third floor under construction.

Anis, an MBA graduate who had enrolled for a communication course, was a political worker is now known. It is also known that he was with CPM’s Students’ Federation of India (SFI) for some time and had also worked with the students’ wing of the Congress. In the last election he had campaigned against both BJP and the ruling Trinamool Congress (AITC). He had also got into a spat with local leaders of the ruling party when he organised a blood donation camp without their blessings. But that was before the pandemic. Why kill him now?

By all accounts he was a good Samaritan, rushing out to help whoever and wherever it was needed. A familiar face at protests and demonstrations in the city, he was in the forefront of protests demanding release of Umar Khalid from jail, the anti-CAA protests and also in the ‘No Vote to BJP’ campaign during the assembly election. What is more, by all accounts he had his heart in the right place, helping people get medical aid, organizing food and relief during the pandemic and a responsible and much liked young man in the village itself.

The chief minister, uncharacteristically, has not visited the family yet. And the father of the deceased has refused to call on her. He remains firm on his demand for a CBI inquiry, asserting that he had no faith in the state’s police. He turned away emissaries sent by Mamata Banerjee and refused to hand over the mobile phone of his son to the SIT. He would either hand over the phone to the court or to the CBI, he has said.

An embarrassed Mamata Banerjee has accused political parties of politicizing the death, inviting mock horror. Look who is talking, the opposition suggested, pointing to her own record of protests, blocking roads and politicizing every possible issue in the past.

Questioning the credibility of the central agency, the CM has promised an impartial inquiry. But while some explanation is likely to surface sooner or later, most people are doubtful if sufficient evidence would ever be available to prosecute the culprits.

(This was first published in National Herald on Sunday)