In Murshidabad district of West Bengal,there is said to be no opposition to Adhir Ranjan Chowdury,now Minister of State for Railways. The district Congress chief has faced criminal charges,including some of murder,been declared an absconder in one case,gone to jail in another,and maintained his grip all through. Such is his clout that since 1998,the Baharampur municipality has had only Congress members for three successive terms. The most sensational case in which he has been implicated was that of the 2005 twin murders of Laltu Sheikh and Hanif Shekh,hoteliers of Baharampur. He spent a month and a half in jail that year,secured bail,and was eventually acquitted two years later. The hoteliers were once with Adhirs party before they switched allegiance to the CPM. They allegedly ran a network of touts in the district hospital,which was right next to their hotel,and remained in control after changing sides. On July 15,2005,they were winding up for the night when a group of men barged into the hotel and murdered them brutally,both hacking and shooting them. Chowdhury,arrested from his home in Delhi that November,was acquitted by the Calcutta High Court in 2007. A district police official said they are still looking at possible grounds for moving the court to reopen the case. Adhir said from New Delhi,I will quit as minister if the charges are proved. He had been implicated in murder cases before. In 1996,though he had been implicated in the murder of CPM leader Manab Saha in Baharampur town and was supposedly absconding,Adhir contested the Assembly election from Nabagram,Murshidabad,with his recorded voice playing out on microphones during campaigns. He went on to sweep the seat,winning by 22,000 votes. Police sources The Indian Express spoke to could not immediately recall the outcome of that case. That victory laid the foundation for Adhirs entry to the Lok Sabha. He won the Baharampur Lok Sabha seat in 1999,defeating the RSPs Pramatesh Mukherjee by 90,000 votes,and has been its MP for three terms now. He was later implicated in the 2003 murder of CPM panchayat pradhan Gobardhan Ghosh of Mourgram,which is in Burdwan district but was then part of his Lok Sabha constituency. Police chargesheeted him after two arrested persons allegedly named him as a conspirator. A fast-track court in Katwa,Burdwan,acquitted him on March 21,2010. Today,five of Murshidabads seven seats are with the Congress,with one of the others won by election ally Trinamool Congress. At one point,Adhir had become larger than the party itself. In the 2006 Assembly elections,he got four of his candidates elected against official Congress nominees. It was under his leadership that the Murshidabad Zilla Parishad went to the Congress for the first time in 2003. In 1996,Mamata Banerjee,then in the Congress,had threatened to hang herself in public should Adhir be given a ticket. Adhir and Mamata remain rivals. The Murshidabad police say they have made a CD with details of the crime syndicates flourishing in the district and given it to the government. We have made a CD that highlights crime syndicates dealing with drugs,women and child trafficking,smuggling and also murders. I dont wish to take names but have submitted it to the government, SP Humayun Kabir said. A school dropout,Adhir started his political career in the 1970s as an aide of Congress MLAs Abdus Sattar and Mohammad Idris. He was arrested on criminal charges in 1978 and 1982,and released. He is also a poet. He has published two anthologies of poems,one in Bengali,Aguner Rong Neel (the colour of fire is blue),the other in English,Between Two Silences. Case Diary 1978,1982: Arrested in criminal cases,released 1996: Implicated in case of murder of CPM leader Manab Saha; was supposedly absconding when he contested Assembly election and won 2003: Chargesheeted over murder of CPM panchayat pradhan Goabrdhan Ghosh; acquitted by fast-track court in 2010 2005: Arrested in connection with murder of Laltu Sheikh and Hanif Sheikh in their hotel. Got bail; acquitted by High Court in 2007
