HVK Archives: CPM cadre hold shariat court
CPM cadre hold shariat court - The Hindustan Times
Subhamoy Chatterjee
()
September 6, 1998
Title: CPM cadre hold shariat court
Author: Subhamoy Chatterjee
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: September 6, 1998
At a time when the CPI(M) has trained all its guns on the BJP for
encouraging religious fundamentalism, a shocking incident of
extortion in the name of the Islamic shariat by a section of the
Marxists in Murshidabad district has come to light.
While the CPI(M)'s Murshidabad district unit has been doing its
best to underplay the horrid trial of one Shamsuddin in
Kapasdang, a village in the Lalbagh thana area, recently for an
alleged offence committed by his daughter, Hira Khatun, the
administration is understood to have taken a serious view. The
State intelligence branch has already initiated a probe in this
regard.
The government sat up and took notice following an investigative
report carried by the Ananda Bazar Patrika in which it was said
that a few Muslim leaders belonging to the CPI (M) and the SUCI
had instituted a Shariat court to penalise Shamsuddin. The man
had to cough up Rs 73,000 and part with one-and-a-half bigha plot
of land because his daughter ad allegedly flouted the Islamic
laws on marriage.
It was said that Hira Khatun who was married to one Yasmin had
annulled the marriage on July 11, five days after the union was
solemnised, as she was subjected to brutal treatment by her
husband. The fundamentalist Muslim leaders would have none of
it. They objected to the manner the woman had divorced her spouse
and ruled it un-Islamic.
A religious court was summoned at a local club on An 2 and
Shamsuddin was arraigned for full two days after which the
verdict was passed against him. The religious zealots from the
CPI(M) and the SUCI even threatened Shamsuddin against going to a
court of law against their judgement.
Contacted over the telephone, Mr Muzaffar Hossain, a CPI(M)
district committee member, sought to dismiss the whole thing as
"an isolated incident". He said that the district committee has
not received any complaint in this regard and this was being
blown out of proportion by vested interests bent on maligning the
Left Front.
He, however, admitted that despite best of its efforts the CPI(M)
had not been able to motivate all sections of the people against
social ills.
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