A local court on Wednesday remanded four persons in 13-day police custody in connection with the death of an ITI student at Diamond Harbour in South 24 Parganas district.
The four, including a woman, were produced in the SDJM’s court in connection with the death of Koushik Purkait, a student of an ITI in the district, who was fatally beaten up by a mob at Harindanga in the district on May 9 night.
The Judge rejected their bail plea and remanded all the four in 13 days’ police custody. They were charged with causing grievous injury, illegal confinement and abduction.
Five people were apprehended in connection with the murder but one was released later for want of evidence.
Purkait, who came to visit his aunt’s residence in the area, was roaming around when he was confronted by the members of a local club and forcibly taken to a room. He was later rescued by his relatives who rushed to the spot on hearing about the incident and took him to the Diamond Harbour Hospital.
He died hours later at S.S.K.M. Hospital in Kolkata.
Meanwhile, a mob on Wednesday set ablaze a fruit orchard and ransacked some houses in the area as the student’s body was brought to his aunt’s village where the murder took place, a police officer said.
The house of local panchayat Up-Pradhan of Trinamool Congress Tapas Mallick also bore the brunt of mob fury but Mallick, named among 10 other accused in the crime by the family of the deceased apart from the four arrested, was not found in the area ever since the incident.
CPI(M) candidate from Raidighi and former West Bengal Minister Kanti Ganguly also accompanied the body brought from Kolkata morgue and tried to pacify the mob but was caught in the melee. - PTI
