Rizwanur’s brother rejected by voters

KOLKATA - Even as the Trinamool Congress swept the Kolkata municipal polls, one of its star candidates, Rukbanur Rahman - brother of Rizwanur whose mysterious death shocked the city - was defeated.

Javed Khan, a Trinamool legislator and one of the party’s mayoral candidates, also lost to a lesser known candidate.

Rukbanur, in the forefront of the campaign to bring to justice those responsible for the 30-year-old computer graphics teacher’s death, lost to Revolutionary Socialist Party’s Sushil Kumar Sharma.

Rukbanur also faced opposition from one of his uncles, Akilur Rahman, who contested as an independent.

Rukbanur’s constituency covered south Kolkata areas like Park Circus, Tiljala and neighbouring areas in south Kolkata which had been in flames after Rizwanur’s body was found Sep 21, 2007 along the railway tracks.

Rizwanur had married Priyanka, daughter of businessman Ashok Todi. His death sparked sparked outrage following allegations that his father-in-law had influenced police officers to force him to opt out of the marriage.

Several police officers, including then police commissioner Prasun Mukherjee, were later removed from their posts for their alleged role in Rizwanur’s death.

Todi, two of his relatives and four senior city police officers were among those later chargesheeted for allegedly abetting Rizwanur’s suicide.

The Calcutta High Court last month asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to register a murder case and conduct a fresh probe into the death.