Kolkata: Thirty years after 17 Ananda Margis were burnt to death in the city, the West Bengal government on Wednesday formed an inquiry commission to probe the massacre.
The killings took place on a flyover "Bijon Setu" in the southern part of the city on April 30, 1982 during the second term of the Left front government, which had attracted widespread condemnation at that time.

The state`s law minister, Moloy Ghatak, said that Justice (retd) Santosh Kumar Faujdar would head the one-man commission of inquiry and it had been asked to submit its report within six months.
On the fateful day, 16 monks and a nun of the Ananda Marga Pracharaka Samity were dragged out of their vehicles, beaten up mercilessly and then set on fire in full public view on the Bijon Setu.
None was arrested and no fruitful probes were conducted into the dreadful incident.

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

Officials said the National Human Rights Commission had taken up the investigation into the case in 1996, but it could not make much headway due to alleged non-cooperation by the previous state government.
The law minister said that the chief minister had given her consent to the inquiry commission.

Ghatak said another inquiry commission to probe corrupt practices, nepotism, and irregularities in the distribution of plots and flats at Rajarhat, which was earlier headed by justice (retd) Ranjit Kumar Mitra (RPT Mitra), but who later resigned, would now be led by justice (retd) Ramendra Narayan Roy.

Justice (retd) Mitra (RPT Mitra) had recused himself on the ground that he himself had got a plot of land at Rajarhat allotted from the HIDCO chairman`s quota.

This inquiry commission has also been asked to submit its report within six months.
PTI