The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Tuesday demanded that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi take moral responsibility for the “cold-blooded murder” of Ishrat Jehan and three others in June 2004 and quit office.
In a statement, the Polit Bureau said the shocking killing of the 19-year-old girl and three others by the Gujarat police was ‘exposed’ by the findings of a city magistrate in Ahmedabad with the enquiry revealing the hand of senior police officials.
“The targeted killings of persons belonging to the minority community by the State police reveals the state of affairs under the Narendra Modi government,” the statement said, demanding immediate action to arrest and prosecute all the police personnel involved in these murders.
It also said exemplary punishment must be meted out in this case as the crime was “committed” by those entrusted with upholding the law. Given the spate of “illegal encounter killings,” the Chief Minister should resign.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation said in a statement that the “fake encounters” appeared to be elaborately planned, indicating a communal conspiracy to secure ideological support for the Modi government by raising a “bogey of Muslims as terrorists.”
It demanded a through and time-bound probe into the role of the entire government machinery.
