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It is believed that on August 18, 2007, the two secretely married according to the Special Marriage Act to which a few close friends and colleagues of Rizwanur were witnesses. He and Priyanka signed and sent a letter to the police asking for protection from her father.
Later, Priyanka would say: "My mind was a blank… I was just signing whatever letters Rizwan was telling me to sign. I once told him we shouldn’t mention my father, but he said Pappu and Rukbanur had insisted that we frame the letters like that and they knew best."
Priyanka's father Ashok Todi and the Todi family were displeased that Priyanka had married into a lower income family, and Rahman being a Muslim exacerbated their displeasure. On August 31, Priyanka and Rahman notified the authorities that they were staying together at Rahman's house.
It is alleged that after police coercion, Rahman was forced to send Priyanka to the Todi house for a week that same day. One of Priyanka's uncles, who was present at the police headquarters, signed an agreement on plain paper in front of a police witness that Priyanka would be sent back to Rahman's house after 7 days, on September 15, but this was never done. Finally a CBI probe has judged that he had committed suicide and they plan to charge Mr Todi with abetment of suicide.
On September 19, Priyanka, still not sent back, Rahman filed a case with an NGO, documenting police harassment. According to his diary and conversations with close friends, he was also planning further legal moves to get his wife back.
Rahman died in the afternoon of September 21, about 2 weeks after his wife was forcefully separated from him. His body was found lying beside a railway line, with hands folded over his chest and a deep wound on the back of his head.
After his death, Priyanka met a state Women's Commission delegation and told them that: "There was no police pressure on me" and that "no police officer ill-treated me".
The Telegraph reported that Rizwanur's family friend Syed Mohiuddin, alias Pappu, has admitted to the CBI that financial deal was made to separate Rizwanur Rahman and Priyanka Todi. Pappu, a family friend of the Rahmans, claimed that part of the amount he had taken from Pradip Todi, Priyanka’s uncle, had been passed on to Rukbanur Rahman, Rizwanur’s elder brother. The translactions involved Rs 5 lakh taken on September 13 and Rs 6 lakh taken September 19
In India, it is illegal to record private messages of an individual unless he is suspected of a serious crime. SMS is considered private and Rizwanur did not commit any crime, so it is still unanswered who asked the mobile service provider to do so in Rizwanur's case. There are also questions about the authenticity of these SMSes, which are being published as follows:
To Mr. Ashok Todi: "Papa, there is 10 mins before I kill myself, let me talk to her for the last time", reads one message. (Timestamp: 21 September 9:24AM) To Mrs. Vimala Todi: "Mom, I will kill myself in five minutes, please let me talk to her". (Timestamp: 21 September 9:30AM) Both messages were sent in Hindi. It is claimed by Rahman's brother that Rahman being a graduate from a Catholic College, used English to send messages.
There are other rumors spread by some sources which said that Rizwanur sent one SMS to one of his friends that read "Please protest aloud after I am gone", and called one of his former "girlfriend" (Pompi Roy) to express his desire to kill himself, which were later proved to be false. These facts also point to the possibility that Rizwanur was not the person who was sending these messages, if they are at all authentic. The CBI enquiry is still in progress and are expected to submit their first report to the Kolkata High Court within the third week of December.
:"Priyanka Todi will not return to the house of Rizwanur Rehman. She will stay with her father Ashok Todi at his residence. She is equally shocked after the incident as is Rizwanur’s family. Please return her belongings... including saris, greeting cards, personal diaries, photographs, birth certificates, school certificates and others."
The letter was delivered through a solicitor and was addressed to Rizwanur’s mother Kishwar Jehan.
Priyanka had asked her in-laws to explain how a private vernacular news channel could get hold of her photographs without her permission.
Rahman’s mother has termed Priyanka Todi’s letter as “rubbing salt on her wounds”. She said she was “deeply hurt” after reading the letter. She also said that she had expected her to attend the last rites of her son. She wrote back a reply which said: “You should have come to meet a mother who lost her son because of the conspiracy hatched by influential police officers and your father. It is a matter of deep regret that you have sent the letter through your advocate...”
Agreeing to return Priyanka’s personal articles, Kishwar said: “I am hoping that you will come yourself and take these things. It will be very unfortunate if I have to hand them over to an advocate’s peon or clerk instead of my daughter-in-law with whom I have no judicial dispute.”
:"Police officers here were transferred over the death of Rizwanur Rahman in keeping with the “progressive culture” that existed in West Bengal. ..We are with Rizwanur Rahman’s family and want justice and action against those found guilty [of involvement in the death of the computer graphics teacher]”
In a statement dated October 15, State Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), Mr Soumen has stated:
:"Rizwanur was murdered as he had dared to fall in love and later marry a Hindu girl ..The chief minister is not able to shield the guilty officers of Kolkata Police because of the public outrage against administrative high-handedness."
Front partner Communist Party of India (CPI) has issued a state secretariat resolution stating: :“The youth was said to be well educated, decent and belonged to a cultured family. His unnatural death has shaken a large number of people. The public outrage following his death should not be undermined. The intervention of the Kolkata police in a marriage between two adults was not a healthy signal.”
Kshiti Goswami of the Revolutionary Socialist Party demanded a judicial inquiry into the matter. Forward Bloc Secretary Ashok Ghosh described the incident as “shocking and shameful”. He said an inquiry commission should be instituted immediately so that the Kolkata police cannot influence investigations into Rehman’s death.
All India Trinamul Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee visiting the Rizvanur's family and held the city police directly responsible for the death. It organized a public rally in the city where Ms Banerjee and Rizwanur's relatives accused the CPI(M) leadership of "offering money" to them to hush up the case. Mamata Banerjee has said:
:It has been 23 days since Rizwanur died. Today is the holy day of Id and we have been out greeting people on the occasion of Id. But in this neighbourhood no one is celebrating Id for obvious reasons. There have been no arrests and no progress in the case,'' "the foolish arrogant chief minister is thinking whether it is the right protocol for him to go and see the mother of the murdered son.
:"The fate of Rizwan ur Rehman, the young man whose death in suspicious circumstances has set off a firestorm in Bengal. The Muslim vote, my Calcuttan friend said bitterly, had become like an item number in Hindi films. It was used to pump up the box office, and then dumped completely from the script."
:"Left bulwark in Bengal has been the substantial Muslim vote: Muslims account for 27% of the population and over 30% of the vote since they tend to vote in larger numbers. This support has weakened in rural areas because of Nandigram, and in Kolkata because of the case of a young man called Rizwan ur Rehman."
Veteran Bengali politician Jyoti Basu has said: :"'Yes, the state government's image has received a beating due to the delay in transferring the policemen who had allegedly coerced Rizwanur. We have suffered politically"
The family members of Manna claimed that there was enough evidence to prove that Manna had been murdered.
"Arindam had two mobile phones - one had Vodafone (9836700511) and the other had Airtel (9903037757) connection. The police recovered the cell phones, but the SIM cards are missing," Manna's brother Debaprasad Moitra claimed.
"The SIM cards have been deliberately taken out to destroy the evidence. Arindam's hands and legs have been broken and his eyes were jutting out. This cannot happen in a suicide. It is a murder and we want the criminals to be punished," Moitra said.
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