Kolkata, March 20
Runaway couple held
The Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel arrested a youth with a single-shot country-made pistol at Tarakeshwar railway station in Hooghly district on Thursday. Police said Kundan Singh, a second-year commerce student of Surendranath College, eloped with Mamata Rajak, a student of Jaipuria College, early this week. Both were residents of Bally and had an affair since the past eight years.Singh and Rajak had eloped to Tarakeshwar and got married there. They were putting up in a lodge following their marriage. “The family of the girl lodged a complaint with the Bally police station. The police managed to track down the couple to Tarakeshwar and followed them to the station in plain clothes. On being approached, the couple tried to run away. The GRP and police chased and nabbed them. A search revealed that Singh was carrying the gun,” sources said. During preliminary questioning, Singh first tried to mislead the police by saying that he had “found” the gun lying unclaimed on the train. Later, he admitted of having purchased the gun to ward off anyone who might try to separate them as there was family opposition to their marriage. Singh has been held while Rajak has since returned to her home, police said.
Maoist leader Somen in judicial custody
Himadri Sen Roy alias Somen, the state committee secretary of the CPI (Maoist), was on Thursday produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) of Purulia Zahir Ahmed. After the state public prosecutor vehemently opposed Somen’s bail plea, the CJM remanded him to 14 days in judicial custody. Somen, who is wanted in connection with a blast at a CRPF camp in Purulia’s Gurpana area on October 2005, was arrested by sleuths of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on February 23 from the Hridaypur railway station in North 24-Parganas. The Purulia police had produced him before the CJM on March 8, who ordered him to be in police custody. It is learnt the police interrogated him on Wednesday night for a few hours. Somen is also reported to have been taken ill following the grilling by the cops. Early this morning, he was taken to the Deben Mahato Hospital. Somen is now in the Purulia jail amid high security.
