DM attack victim missing from Falakata hospital

JALPAIGURI

: The man at the centre of the controversy involving the

Alipurduar district

magistrate thrashing him in a police station has gone missing from a

Falakata hospital

on Tuesday.


Binod Kumar Sarkar was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday morning after he complained of severe body ache following the beating by DM Nikhil Nirmal and his wife Nandini Krishnan in

Falakata

police station on Sunday. He was out on interim bail granted by a local court on Monday after being accused of posting lewd comments about Krishnan on Facebook.

When Binod complained of body ache on Monday night, his family felt it was due to the thrashing and took him to hospital. "We were with Binod all through the day until hospital authorities asked us to leave the room at 5pm. When we finally managed to get in at 6.30, Binod was not on his bed. We searched for him everywhere on the hospital premises but couldn't find him," said uncle Ratan Sarkar.

In a startling revelation, Binod's family claimed police had been to his home late on Monday and asked him to give in writing that he had no grievance against police. Binod refused although police reportedly allured him with a "good life" if he did so.

Binod's thrashing had gone viral in a video that showed he was beaten up in front of the Falakata IC. Several human rights organisations questioned the police officer's role. The IC should have stopped the DM from beating the accused inside a police station, the activists said.

"This probably led cops to Binod's house where they allegedly asked for a write-up to clear the IC. Police now want to save their face," said Sukumar MK Ghosh, a human rights activist who runs Falakata-based Community Human Rights.

Alipurduar SP Sunil Kumar Yadav and Falakata IC Soumyajit Roy could not be reached for their comments.