November 11, 2010
CPM leaders convicted of Suchpur murders
A district court in Birbhum has convicted senior CPM district leaders of the heinous murders of 11 landless farmers in 2000 at Suchpur, a crime that sent ripples in Parliament that year. Each of the 44, among 81 named in the chargesheet, that the court found guilty on Wednesday belongs to the CPM. The farmers, all of them scheduled caste Muslims, were hacked to death in a field. They were Trinamool supporters. The first additional and sessions court in Birbhum named six CPM leaders, including former zilla parishad member, who is now a district committee member of the Birbhum CPM, while reading its judgment. Judge Biswanath Konar will pronounce the punishment on Thursday. Twenty-three people named in the chargesheet were acquitted. Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee, had described the killings as part of the Left Front�s well-orchestrated plan to exterminate the opposition. On Wednesday, she welcomed the court�s decision, saying it should serve as a lesson for the CPM. �They had tried to pass off the victims as dacoits, but now it has been proved that they were poor landless labourers and supporters of the Trinamool,� Mamata said, hoping justice would be similarly served in Singur and Nandigram.
Courtesy: The Times of India
