Four months after Abhijit Sarkar was murdered in Kolkata, kin to receive body tomorrow

More than four months after Abhijit Sarkar, a BJP worker, was murdered in Kolkata after the results of the West Bengal Assembly elections were declared, his family members will receive his body from a hospital morgue on Thursday and would be able to perform the last rites.

On May 2, hours after the election results were declared Sarkar was dragged out of his house at Narkeldanga and murdered allegedly by Trinamool Congress workers.

“We had moved the lower court in Sealdah seeking that Sarkar’s body along with the post-mortem and DNA report be handed over to the family. The court has permitted it. The Central Bureau of Investigation has been directed to hand over the reports and the hospital authorities have been directed to hand over the body to the family,” said Priyanka Tiberwal, advocate and BJP leader.

Earlier, his family members had refused to accept the body from the local police as after two post-mortems they could not identify the body. The family had moved court questioning the report of the first post-mortem. On July 2, the court had ordered a second autopsy.

In July, a five-judge bench of the Calcutta high court ordered a DNA test of Sarkar, which needed to be matched with samples collected from his brother Biswajit, in a bid to identify the body. The Central Forensic Laboratory was directed to do the DNA matching.

“The DNA report suggests that the body belongs to Abhijit Sarkar. It was then that we moved court seeking that the body should be handed over to the victim’s brother,” said Tibrewal.

Biswajit is likely to receive the body on Thursday morning, which has been lying for the past few months in the morgue of the state-run NRS Medical College and Hospital.

“Today I am feeling relieved. I will be able to perform the last rites of my brother. The fight, however, is not over yet, as those who murdered my brother are yet to be punished,” Biswajit told the media after receiving the court’s order.

The TMC, however, said that the day on which Sarkar was murdered the law and order was under the jurisdiction of the ECI.

“Some sporadic incidents had taken place till May 5 when Mamata Banerjee took oath as the chief minister. After that there has been hardly any incident of violence. Till May 5 the law and order was under the jurisdiction of the poll panel,” said Kunal Ghosh, TMC spokesperson.