Kolkata: Pradip Todi, one of the accused
in the murder of Rizwanur Rahman, on Wednesday claimed that he cannot
be charged with abetment to suicide as his name did not figure
in the last letter of the slain computer graphics teacher,
found before his death.
Submitting for Pradip Todi, Counsel Sanatan Mukherjee
said before the ninth fast track court judge Amit Mukhopadhyay
of City Sessions Court here that as his name did not figure in
the dying declaration of Rizwanur, the charge of abetment
cannot stand against him.
He further said that it was the duty of guardians of
a family to protect their children and by doing so, no crime
has been committed.
At this, the counsel for de facto complainant Ruqbanur
Rehman and Kishwar Jahan, the elder brother and mother of
Rizwanur respectively, disputed the submission.
But the judge held that de facto complainants have no
right to argue in the instant case and their counsel can only
assist the CBI counsel.
The CBI had filed a case of abetment to suicide of
Rizwanur against industrialist Ashok Todi, father of
Priyanka, whom Rizwanur had married in 2007, his brother
Pradip Todi and five others including three police officers.
The court is at present hearing the pleas of the
defendants and the CBI over framing of charges against the
accused persons following which the actual trial would begin.
Rizwanur was found dead near railway tracks in Dumdum
area of Kolkata on September 21, 2007, just a month after his
marriage to Priyanka on August 18, 2007, after which his
mother and brother had moved the High Court for an independent
CBI probe into his unnatural death.
PTI
