Man who had fractured Mamata's skull acquitted after 3 decades

Kolkata: Lalu Alam, accused of brutally hitting the then youth Congress leader and present Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on her head with a blunt weapon, was acquitted by Alipore Court on Thursday, three decades after the incident at Hazra crossing in South Kolkata.

CPI(M) youth wing leader Alam had hit Banerjee on August 16, 1990 and the impact had resulted in a fracture in her skull, following which she had to fight for her life at a hospital for over one month. Recently, the Mamata Banerjee government had appealed to the court that they do not want to continue the case further as the majority of those involved in the incident or those who had been the witnesses in the case have either died or have gone missing. Considering the appeal made by the government, the Alipore Court on Monday decided to put an end to the case due to lack of evidence under Article 332 of the Indian Penal Code.

Among the key witnesses who died during the trial of the case were former chairman of Kolkata Municipal Corporation Anil Mukherjee and three other former councilors, namely Dibyendu Biswas, Dilip Majumdar and Anup Chatterjee. The 6th Additional District and Sessions Judge, Alipore Court, had summoned Banerjee on August 21 to appear for cross-examination as a prosecution witness and evidence-in-chief.

However, the Chief Minister could not appear before the court owing to exigencies and security issues, as video-conferencing arrangements could not be made for cross-examination by the defence lawyers.

She had communicated to the court through Law minister Moloy Ghatak that she had pardoned Alam for the incident and did not want to drag the issue further. It was only once during the trial of the case that Banerjee had deposed before the court.

The incident in 1990 had shaken Bengal as Banerjee was coming up as a face against the alleged misrule of CPI(M) in the state. Interestingly, as soon as Banerjee assumed power ending the 34-year rule of Left Front in 2011, Alam had met her and apologised for his action, stating that he had been forced by CPI(M) to attack her.