With police yet to nab a Trinamool Congress leader said to be the prime suspect in the lynching of a student on suspicion of stealing a buffalo in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district, the victim's family on Thursday demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation probe.
Twenty-four-year-old ITI student Koushik Purakait was on Monday lynched by a mob, which accused him of being a cattle thief, in Harindanga near Diamond Harbour in the district.
While police have nabbed four people including a woman, Kaushik's father alleged the police are intentionally not arresting the prime suspect Tapas Mallik, a panchayat member from the Trinamool.
"Three days have passed but the police are yet to arrest Mallik who had led the attack on my son. Just because he is a Trinamool leader, they are trying to shield him. We don't have any faith in the police. We demand a CBI probe," said Kartik Purakait, the father.
Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR), a rights organisation, also alleged senior police officers were "unwilling" to treat Mallik as the prime suspect.
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"It's not just the family alone, many of the villagers who have witnessed the incident have all claimed Mallik was leading the assault but the police are not willing to accept him as the prime suspect," said APDR secretary Ranjit Sur.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Roopa Ganguly visited the family and also met police officers.
--IANS
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