Darjeeling, July 25: Hours after a Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporter was killed by bullets fired from a multi-storey owned by GNLF leader Deepak Gurung, no one knows for sure how many people were inside the building when the incident took place.
All that is known is that after the Morcha supporters surrounded the house, a volley of shots in three bursts, possibly from an automatic weapon, rained on them and a woman lay sprawled on the road, bleeding profusely.
The Morcha supporters appeared confused about the chain of events that was over in a matter of minutes.
“We were calling for Gurung when a boy came outside and told us that the GNLF leader was not at home and had gone to Siliguri,” said a woman Morcha supporter who did not want to be named. “We were engaged in the conversation and I doubt if anyone was keeping a watch on the building as we were not expecting any firing to take place. But suddenly the bullets rang out.”
Police, when they arrived at the spot, found Gurung crouching in a small room on the ground floor of the building, although he and his family live on the second and third floors. By then, the second floor was already up in flames.
The GNLF leader has reportedly claimed that there was no one else at home at that time other than an old woman. She was brought out minutes before the house was stormed by the Morcha supporters and set on fire.
Gurung’s family members — wife and two daughters — were not found in the house either.
As a result, there is no answer as to who fired the bullets that claimed the life of Pramila Sharma.
The police are tight-lipped and have whisked Gurung off to an undisclosed location after his arrest. What has emerged from his interrogation is yet to be revealed.
The law enforcers claim they are as much in the dark as the public.
“It is reported that there were some people in the house, but that is yet to be verified,” said IG, special, north Bengal, D. Lepcha. “If there were (some people), they must have fled. No firearms have been recovered either.”
Police sources revealed that if there were indeed one or more persons in the building, they could have easily escaped from the back of the house in the ten minutes it took the Morcha supporters to storm the building after the firing.
The house is on the slope of a hill. Anyone inside the building — and not necessarily in Gurung’s house on the second and third floors — could have got out of the back and escaped down the slope and disappeared in the lanes and bylanes below without being spotted or arousing suspicion.
Neighbours have told the police that whenever the GNLF leader was in Darjeeling and at home, there would usually be around three-four party supporters with him.
“He was an important man before the Morcha usurped all powers in the hills,” a neighbour said. “Even now, there are always people around Gurung whenever he is at home.”
The police are not discounting the possibility that one of Gurung’s supporters might have opened fire. However, at the moment, they do not have any proof.
“There are far too many unanswered questions,” said a police official.
“We can come to some kind of conclusion only after a thorough interrogation of Gurung and the other occupants of the building,” he added.
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