Even as the gruesome Tapasi Malik murder case haunts the CPI(M) in Singur and beyond, the comrades are banking on the murder convict, Suhrid Dutta, as its trump card in the elections here.

Singur, the site of the Nano car project, is the key Assembly segment of Hooghly parliamentary constituency. And Dutta, who is the zonal committee member of the CPI(M), is the party’s showcase throughout Hooghly. To take on the CPI(M), the Trinamool Congress has roped in Monoranjan Malik and Molina — Tapasi’s parents — who have their hands full these days, narrating their plight and seeking votes for Ratna De Nag.

Tapasi’s body was found in Singur on December 18, 2006, at the height of the Trinamool-CPI(M) clash over the Singur agitation. The CBI arrested Dutta and Debu Malik on June 25, 2007. Dutta and Malik were sentenced to life imprisonment. But the Calcutta High Court granted bail to both on February 12, 2008.

Dutta insists he is innocent. “Our candidate is Rupchandda (Rupchand Pal). I am working for him and for my party. I was framed. There is a conspiracy against the CPM here,” he says.

Hooghly district secretary of the CPI(M), Binod Das, says the party is backing Dutta to send across the message that he is innocent. “We intend to campaign alongside the murder accused, so that we can make people understand that our leader was falsely implicated,” says Das.

The Assembly election from Singur was won by Trinamool candidate Rabindranath Bhattacharjee in 2006.

... contd.