Barun Bhujel’s family has written to the West Bengal Inspector-General (prisons) and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) alleging that the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) leader’s death was a “clear case of custodial death due to torture.”
Bhujel’s brother has written to the NHRC asking for a post-mortem by an independent medical team, an enquiry by a Special Investigation Team, and speedy submission of the the SIT’s report.
All major businesses in the hill town of Kalimpong remained shut as Barun Bhujel’s body was being brought to the city. A municipal councillor from Kalimpong, Bhujel, passed away in the SSKM Hospital in Kolkata on Wednesday, 25 October. He was arrested in June for allegedly setting a hilltop lodge on fire.
Bhujel fell ill while he was in police custody, and was undergoing treatment for a pancreatic infection.
He was first treated at North Bengal Medical College in Siliguri and was later shifted to the SSKM Hospital in Kolkata.
There have been a series of protests in Kalimpong since October 25 as news of Bhujel’s death spread.
In an audio message, GJM chief Bimal Gurung alleged that Bhujel’s case was a clear case of police torture and human rights violations. He asked people to take to the streets to protest and use social media to express their dissent.
State BJP president Dilip Ghosh said that this was a case of “administrative high-handedness,” and that Bhujel should have been allowed to meet his family.
His younger brother, Biren, alleged that Bhujel died due to police negligence, in a video posted by the Darjeeling Chronicle.
The full text of the video is as follows:
“My brother was the councillor in ward number 16. To show his solidarity to the Gorkhaland movement, on 14 June, he went to participate in a dharna. On his way back, the Kalimpong Superintendent of Police arrested him and sent him to Siliguri. People there saw that he was bleeding profusely when he reached. They did not keep him in Kalimpong jail, but took him to Bakrigur jail. They did not inform us that he was unwell. Only recently we were informed, and when we went to see him at the North Bengal Medical Hospital, he was kept like a dog in a cage, with handcuffs on. His pancreas were in a bad state.
“Then we appealed to the courts to let us take over the treatment. They could keep him if they wanted, but we wanted to get him better doctors. They wouldn’t listen. On the 22nd (of October), they took him to the CCU and not even the ICU, and they didn’t let any of his relatives meet him. The Kalimpong SP is responsible for what happened to my brother. He should have been given the right treatment.”
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