Anti-drug crusader murdered

KOLKATA: A whistleblower had to pay with his life while another had a narrow escape after being abducted from the heart of the city - all in the past 48 hours. While the first incident was reported from Metiabruz, the abduction was in Ballygunge.
The murder victim is a 41-year-old trader, Sk Nazrul Islam, a resident of Lichubagan in Metiabruz, who had been leading a citizens' crusade against a gang of drug and satta dealers for three years.A year ago, he and wife Salma Bibi, who was pregnant at the time, were beaten up. She suffered a miscarriage. This time, the gang allegedly planned the murder after Nazrul began protesting against hooking of illegal electricity connections by the rowdies.
Around 11.45pm on Friday, Nazrul walked about 200 metres from his residence to an open plot where he would marshal his fellow crusaders to resist gangs that were trying to openly sell ganja in the area. He was talking to three neighbours when six armed men rushed in and started attacking him with shovels and iron rods, police say, adding that the gang had cut off electricity to the area before the attack. In the darkness, they brutally tortured and mutilated him.
"What they did to Nazrul is barbaric. His face has been mutilated and his eyes gouged out. They stabbed iron rods inside his nostrils and ripped them apart. They also smashed all his teeth with shovels. He died on the spot," said the victim's nephew Mehfuz Alam. Nazrul leaves behind his wife and two daughters, aged 11 and five.
Angry residents set a gambling den and two bikes on fire. Police had to rush in and "rescue" a man from being lynched. Nazrul's family says he is the prime accused. "We have arrested two persons. The family has identified five persons involved in the attack. We are confident of arresting all of them," said DC-1st Battalion Biswajit Ghosh, in charge of Port division till the end of this week. Police pickets have been set up in the area.
The victim of the second incident is 32-year-old Ramesh Sharma, who alleged that he was being forced by a Manicktala-based businessman to falsely implicate another businessman. He was kidnapped and held hostage for several hours last Thursday. Based on his FIR, three persons - prime accused Basant Kumar Gupta, Rajesh Kumar Sonkar, and Durgesh Mishra - have been arrested, said DC-south Murlidhar Sharma.
According to police, Gupta had called Sharma to a restaurant in Bhowanipore and asked him to repay money he had loaned him. Sharma says that when he said he couldn't, Gupta asked him to help him implicate a rival businessman. Sharma says he refused after which Gupta's men allegedly took him to a Sector V house and beat him up. He was then taken to hospital and again told to name his rival as the one who attacked him. Finding his chance, Sharma says he escaped and contacted Salt Lake police, who refused to file an abduction case. He then contacted Ballygunge police who sent him to the Bhowanipore cops.