CALCUTTA, May 1: The 15th anniversary of West Bengal's biggest ever case of mass lynching was observed here on Wednesday by monks of the Ananda Marg even as the Jyoti Basu government continues to conceal the facts on the gruesome killing from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

On the morning of April 30, 1982, 16 Ananda Marg monks and a nun were dragged out of taxis that were taking them to an educational conference at their headquarters in Tiljala in the city's southern suburbs.

At three spots simultaneously, they were beaten to death and then set on fire. All this was watched by thousands of people. Yet, to this day, not a single arrest has been made.

Finally, in late 1996, the NHRC decided to take up the investigation of the case.

But without the West Bengal government's cooperation it cannot go far. Already two reminders have been sent but the Basu government has not responded.

Meanwhile, an IAS officer of the West Bengal cadre, Sher Singh, has stirred a hornet's nest by offering to reveal the facts of the case along with relevant documents. Singh was additional district magistrate of 24 Parganas at the time of the incident and claimed to the Central Administration Tribunal (CAT) in his petition (No.1108 of 1994) that he was victimised for his refusal to toe the Marxist government's line on the case and suspended.

Singh has informed the CAT that since he is bound by the Official Secrets Act he can only reveal the full facts if demanded by the ``competent authority''. However peppered all over his petition are hints that the lynching was carefully planned and executed by Marxist cadres over a land dispute with the Marg. The Marxists had feared the Margis would upstage their domination in the Kasba belt, which was at that time a base for the CPI(M).

The West Bengal government claimed after the incident that the Margis were lynched by an irate mob. But there is still no explanation as to how such spontaneous action could take place at three different spots within a one-kilometre radius. Moreover, there were three police stations in the vicinity but the police did not arrive at the scene till two hours after the lynching.

Acharya Trambakeshwarananda Avadoot, public relations secretary of the Marg, told The Indian Express that the ``only success achieved by the Basu government has been the concealing of its involvement in the State's biggest case of lynching.'' Mantreshwarananda Avadoot, a central committee member of the Marg said the Marxists had planned to eliminate all the top leaders of the organisation but its goons, in a case of mistaken identity, selected ordinary monks for the slaughter.

A silent procession was taken out in south Calcutta yesterday by the Marg to remind Calcuttans of one of the permanent blotches on their collective consciousness. Though over the years the Marg has picked up a lot of controversy -- its role in the famous Purulia airdrop being one -- people still sympathetically relate them to the victims of the 1982 incident.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.