A young man married a young woman in Kolkata. He happened to be middle class Muslim; she a very rich Hindu. Days later they intimidated by senior officers of the Kolkata police on multiple occasions. And then, days after he wrote to the human rights commission claiming intimidation, he was found dead - the Kolkata police claiming a suicide.

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Rizwanur Rahman and Priyanka Todi were married on August 18 at the office of the marriage registrar Sipra Ghosh. The names would make you proud, but would also make you think that the marriage would face problems: it is not every day that a Muslim man and a Hindu woman are joined in wedlock in Kolkata.

What you would not expect is that an Assistant Commissioner of the anti-rowdy section of Kolkata Police would summon the couple to police headquarters at Lalbazar on September 1, and ask the woman to return to her father's place of residence, that the Deputy Commissioner of police, Headquarters would do the same on September 3, and that the Deputy Commissioner (1) of police, Detective Department, would, on September 1, propose a seven day visit by the woman to her father's place, failing which, Rizwanur would be arrested for theft on the complaint of the woman's father. But this is, indeed, what Rizwanur told the Association for  Protection of Democratic Rights, APDR, two days before his death.

On September 17, Sadiq Hosain, a witness to the marriage of Rizwanur and Priyanka, was summoned to Lalbazar, and, on his refusal to go there, was threatened by one Krishnendu with dire consequences. This is what Sadiq wrote to the West Bengal State Human Rights Commission.

On September 21, Rizwanur's battered corpse was found beside the railway tracks near Dum Dum.

On September 23, the Commissioner of Police, Kolkata, held a Press Conference, to assert that the death of Rizwanur was a suicide. Instead of fielding the queries of journalists, especially regarding the unusual interest taken by the police in the private affairs of an adult married couple, the Commissioner abruptly left, but not before asserting, "This is the way we act."

On the same day the State Secretary (and Politbureau member) of the CPI(M)

asserted that the police were not to blame in Rizwanur's death.

If you find all this mysterious, it is time to know the name of the father of the woman. It is Ashok Todi, Kolkata's hosiery baron. Rizwanur was a mere instructor at a graphics design school, a lowly inhabitant of Tiljala Lane, the antipode of Todi's palace in Salt Lake City.

A leading newspaper has alluded to the cordial relations which existed between Todi and the anti-rowdy section of Kolkata police, ever after an abortive raid by the section on a Todi office to uncover cricket gambling.

A television news channel has broa cast an interview with the men who saw Rizwanur hurtling down from a railway carriage. They stated that unless the man had been pushed with force the body would not have landed where it did. These eyewitnesses expressed surprise at the alacrity with which the police arrived on the scene.

However, civil society reacted sharply. A major traffic artery was blocked near Rizwanur's residence until the body was handed over to his relatives. There was violence when the police tried to break up the protest. A long procession, with a banner accusing the Todis of having  Rizwanur killed, took the body for burial. Acting on the complaint filed by the All-India Legal Aid Forum, the Chairman of the state Human Rights Commission instructed the Chief Secretary to submit a report on Rizwanur's death. The Forum  also moved the Supreme Court to seek an explanation from the West Bengal government as to how it allotted eight plots to Todi in Salt Lake City.

Meetings were held near Rizwanur's residence on September 24 and 25. The September 24 meeting was attended by CPI(M) leaders, who were changing tack after assessing the mood of popular outrage. Even so, they are reported to have faced flak at the meeting. The September 25 meeting was a protest meeting, organised by Siddiqullah  Saheb of Nandigram fame.

A rally and march have been called on September 26. Prominent intellectuals have stared protesting against the role of the police.

Finally, on September 24, the Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya was forced to take the case away from Kolkata Police and hand it over to the CID, terming the death as unfortunate and indicating that he had asked for enquiry into "the allegations which have arisen". Opposition leader Mamata Bandyopadhyay was sceptical regarding the impartiality of one section of the state police in any investigation which includes accusations against another section and called for a CBI enquiry. She has put the case before the Governor.

That the police take the side of the moneybags against the 'aam aadmi' has been a conspicuous complaint all through the country. The Rizwanur case makes it clear that after 30 years of Left Front rule the plight of the "aam aadmi" in West Bengal vis a vis the police is as bad as it is anywhere else in the country

Worse. It is indeed alarming when a chief of police claims blatantly that they are justified in interfering in the very private lives of adult citizens, that this is the way they act. All citizens feel threatened by such a claim , coming as it does after threats and intimidation climaxing in violent death of the victim of intimidation.

This is not all. When a television news channel started beaming a programme on the role of the police in the Rizwanur case, on he night of September 25, the programme, and, in cases, total reception was blocked by cable operators who admitted, in one case, at least, that the interference was done on police directive.

It is to be noted that although the West Bengal government has sidelined Kolkata Police in the investigations, and the CPI, a constituent of the government, has criticised police interference in  private lives, neither the West Bengal government nor the CPI(M) has criticised any of the activities of the police, or  commented on the police chief's claim that the police are, indeed, justified in interfering in the private lives of ordinary citizens. Do they endorse this claim and the right of the police to intimidate even  the media, leave alone private citizens? This is  cause for real alarm.

- Dipanjan Rai Chaudhuri