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| The wife of one of the victims waves a slipper at Seth on Tuesday. Picture by Jahangir Badsa |
Haldia, March 20: Slippers were hurled today at Lakshman Seth by relatives of the six missing Nandigram land protesters who demanded that he be hanged when the CPM leader was produced in a Haldia court along with two others. The trio were remanded in CID custody for three days. Seth, arrested in Mumbai on Saturday, has denied the charges that he had masterminded the plot to kill the six land protesters in Nandigram during the CPM’s armed recapture of the area in November 2007. “We demand that Lakshman Seth and the other two accused be hanged,” the relatives shouted as Seth came out of the police van outside the court. The police force deployed at the court formed a ring around the accused but had a tough time dispersing the family members of the victims of the 2007 violence. “It is Seth who is responsible for our predicament. He masterminded the killing of our husbands by CPM cadres in 2007. After murdering them, the cadres threw their bodies in the Bay of Bengal. We want them to be hanged,” said Krishna Majhi, 42, wife of Subol, one of the missing persons.
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Seth being taken to the
court on Tuesday. Picture by Jahangir Badsa |
As Section 144 of the CrPC had been clamped in and around Haldia court, nearly 1,000 Trinamul supporters were stopped outside the compound gate. They shouted slogans and burned effigies of the three CPM leaders — Seth and district secretariat members of the party Amiya Sahoo and Ashok Guria. The trio were brought today from Bhawani Bhavan in Calcutta in a police vehicle at 12.05pm. The CID sought their custody for 10 days and informed the court that the three leaders had been absconding despite a court order summoning them on February 27. “As they failed to turn up in court, arrest warrants were issued against them. If they are given bail, they might escape,” the additional public prosecutor told the court. Seth and the two other CPM leaders were placed in the court prison. “I am a diabetic and I am suffering from an upset stomach ,” Seth was heard telling one of his lawyers. Seth’s wife Tamalika and his two sons and daughters-in-laws were present along with a number of CPM leaders from Haldia. “My husband has been falsely implicated in the case,” said Tamalika. Leader of the Opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra today accused the government of seeking political vendetta by putting Seth behind the bars. “Selectively, CPM leaders and workers are being arrested. The chief minister had assured that there would be no interference in administrative matters. Trinamul leaders who were named in the FIRs are roaming freely and even sharing the dais with the chief minister but the police can’t find them. Our demand is that assurance should be met,” Mishra said at a news conference in the Assembly. | 
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