Darjeeling, Aug 30 (IANS) The West Bengal Police Monday filed a charge-sheet against 30 accused in the Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League (ABGL) leader Madan Tamang murder case. However, the names of several top Gorkha Jan Mukti (GJM) leaders, whose names figured in the FIR, were not mentioned.
The 519-page chargesheet filed by the CID in the court of the Darjeeling Chief Judicial Magistrate S.P. Rajak, mentioned prime accused Nicole Tamang as absconder.
Two of those listed in the chargesheet are women.
Nicole Tamang, a GJM central committee member and a close aide of party chief Bimal Gurung, remains untraced eight days after escaping from CID custody at The Pintail Village resort near Siliguri.
At least 20 people mentioned in the chargesheet have also eluded the police dragnet so far. The document listed 61 witnesses to the May 21 murder of Madan Tamang in broad daylight in the heart of Darjeeling town.
Seven of the accused were produced in the court Monday and remanded to judicial custody for 14 days by Rajak.
Gurung, GJM general secretary Roshan Giri, assistant general secretary Benoy Tamang and press and publicity secretary Harka Bahadur Chhetri were among the top GJM leaders who were named in the FIR as suspects in the case.
Though their names were not included in the chargesheet Monday, CID sources said there was always the scope to file a supplementary chargesheet if fresh evidence was found against those not mentioned in the initial document.
Meanwhile, the GJM has decided to start a relay hunger strike from Sep 1 demanding that Nicole Tamang be presented before the court or brought out in public, Benoy Tamang said.
The GJM earlier alleged that Nicole Tamang had been murdered by the CID.
