AGARTALA, Feb 1 ? Bijoy Laxmi Sinha, wife of assassinated Health Minister Bimal Sinha repeatedly broke down while deposing before the court of District Session Judge B K Goswami.
Bimal Sinha, considered to be the most popular minister of the Fourth Left Front government and his younger brother Bidyut Debbarma were shot dead by NLFT militants at Abhanga area in Kamalpur subdivision in Dhalai district on March 31, 1998. The minister had gone to Abhanga for negotiating with the militants on the release of their another Bikram. While Bimal Sinha and Bidyut Sinha were standing on the edge of Dhalai river and talking to the two militants, one of the extremists suddenly opened fire and killed both the brothers on the spot.
This incident caused high sensation and public fury ran high. Some of the non-tribals who acted as in-between were accused of hatching conspiracy with the militants for the minister?s assassination. Two of them were killed by a furious mob while some others were arrested.
Already Bimal Sinha?s brother Bikram, who had been kidnapped by the militants, minister?s personal secretary Sukharanjan Sinha and others have already deposed before the court. All of them cried and narrated their story.
But Friday it was deposition from the assassinated minister?s widow Bijoy Laxmi who is also a minister now in charge of handloom and handicrafts. The court was jam-packed from morning but fell shell-shocked as she narrated her husband?s tale with tears rolling down her cheeks.
?The militants demanded Rs 50 lakh in cash for the release of my brother in law Bikram and Rs 1.60 lakh was already paid to them through his confidential assistant Sukharanjan Sinha for the kidnappers?, Bijoy Laxmi, now a minister, stated before the court. ?I learnt the money was paid to one Satya Das by Sukharanjan for Himangshu Das, who was mediating the release of Bikram?.
She also stated before the court that she last spoke with her husband on March 29 from Agartala when her husband informed that he was busy with matters related to release of his brother Bikram. She admitted before the court that she had found some letters written by Bikram from the militants? captivity.
?He was killed at 12:30 and I learnt that only at about 2:30 and left for Kamalpur from Agartala?, she added. The court also recorded the statements of Ilias Mian and Nripendra Majumdar who identified the bodies of Bimal and Bidyut Sinha and informed the Salema police later.