Agartala: A trial court of Tripura granted bail to a senior police service officer Tapan Debbarma, the main accused of the sensational murder of journalist Sudip Datta Bhowmik almost after four years of his arrest yesterday on the ground of non-submission of charge sheet by CBI in time.
Sudip Datta Bhowmik was shot dead at the chamber of Tapan Debbarma who was the then commandant of Tripura State Rifles (TSR) 2nd battalion in broad daylight on Nov 21, 2017. The next day police arrested Tapan on the charge of his involvement in the murder and since then he had been in the custody.
The special investigation team (SIT) of Tripura police had accused four policemen including Tapan Debbarma of Sudip Datta Bhowmik murder and accordingly, the police took custody of Tapan Debbarma, his guard Nandu Kumar Reang, riflemen Dharmendra Singh and Amit Debbarma.
Following the demand of the journalist bodies’, the BJP-IPFT government headed by Biplab Kumar Deb in the first cabinet had handed over the case to CBI in March 2018. Two years after September last year, CBI submitted a preliminary charge sheet in the trial court against five policemen including the previous accused four.
According to Tapan’s advocate Pijush Kanti Biswas, CBI informed the court that the investigation was not completed and a supplementary charge sheet would be submitted soon. Meantime, a Supreme Court judgment came stating that there is no concept of primary or final charge sheet – it’s always to be one.
Most of the cases investigating agency submit a half-done charge sheet within 90 days and keep the accused in the custody for long until they submit final one, Biswas said, adding that “Apex court made it clear that investigating agency is duty-bound to submit complete charge sheet after due investigation within three months of the arrest and based of which the court decides the proceedings of the trial.”
However, in the case of Tapan Debbarma, he was arrested soon after the murder and trial had begun based on the charge sheet of SIT. The CBI got into the case in between and withdrew the charge sheet and re-started the investigation filing a fresh FIR. But Tapan Debbarma and his security guard Nadu Reang who was accused of opening fire on Sudip complying with him have been in jail for four years without any trial.
“We moved on the grounds of unnecessary confinement of Tapan Debbarma for four years in jail referring to the latest direction of the Supreme Court and the court accepted the plea and released him on bail. Hopefully, Nandu Reang also would be set free on the same ground,” Biswas stated and supplemented that due to lackadaisical attitude of CBI for the investigation of such sensational cases.
According to the report, SIT investigation had indicated that Sudip was murdered as he had got access to information of corruption, moral turpitude and many illegal activities of the battalion commandant Tapan Debbarma. Sudip had written a few stories in Syandan Patrika, a leading vernacular daily, which had put Tapan into trouble.
Sudip was murdered exactly two months after the brutal murder of TV journalist Shantanu Bhowmik in a political rally. The CBI has also been investigating the murder of Shantanu Bhowmik but there is no headway yet. Bhowmik was attacked with sharp weapons during a political clash on September 20, 2017, at Mandai. Nobody has been arrested so far in connection with Shantanu’ killing.
