Rizwanur Rahman

The state human rights commission has sought an explanation from city police chief Prasun Mukherjee for his remark that the Todis’ reaction to the marriage of their daughter Priyanka with Rizwanur Rahman was “natural”.

The explanation will have to be submitted in a week.

“He has been asked to inform us whether he had issued the statement attributed to him in newspapers,” commission chairman Shyamal Sen said on Monday, after the panel decided to take up the case suo motu.

Mukherjee had made the statement while addressing a press conference at Lalbazar on Sunday.

The rights panel asked chief secretary Amit Kiran Deb to conduct a probe into the “mysterious death” of Rahman, a computer graphics teacher who married Priyanka against the wishes of her parents.

“If the chief secretary can not conduct the probe, an official of the rank of additional chief secretary has to be assigned the task. The report will have to be submitted by October 8,” said Sen.

Police chief Mukherjee will also have to submit a report to the panel on a complaint of Sadique Hossain, a witness to the marriage, that he had been threatened by the police.

“An officer from the anti-rowdy squad, who identified himself as Krishnendu, said he would pick me up from my residence at night if I did not meet him at Lalbazar,” Hossain had mentioned in his complaint to the rights panel.

The Association for Protection of Democratic Rights, which was helping Rahman fight the police and the Todis, has decided to move court demanding action against the officers who threatened Rahman to leave his wife.

“We will file a case against the guilty officers. We also want to hear from Priyanka,” said Sujato Bhadra, the secretary of the organisation, which will organise a march from Rahman’s Tiljala home to Esplanade on Wednesday.