Pranava K Chaudhary & Alok Mishra
9 Dec 2006, Times Of India
Patna : “Justice for Jessica”, cried the country and the Court of law prodded policemen into action. Cries for justice for Patna University’s Prof Papiya Ghosh, who was stabbed to death along with her elderly maid in a posh Patna Colony on Saturday night, seems to be falling on deaf ears.
Five days on, the Patna police have not been able to identify either the culprits or their motive.
Restive and angry, Papiya’s colleagues and friends across the world have approached Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. “The Central Government should take charge of the investigation, given the evident collusion between local political and criminal elements that resulted in the horrible murder of Papiya and her domestic help,” their Memorandum to the PM reads. The signatories include University Teachers and Research Fellows of Delhi University, JNU, Nehru Museum Memorial Library, Indira Gandhi National Open University, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, School of Oriental and African Studies, London and a few UK and US Universities. The Memorandum has been circulated all over the world through e-mail.
Teachers, colleagues and friends of Papiya have also planned to assemble at Teen Murti House in New Delhi on December 18 and ascertain how to bring the culprits to book. Local academicians, positively receptive to the talks of “sushasan” or good governance under the new NDA regime till the other day, are no less furious now.
“The new regime is the product of the same forces which ruled the roost previously. Only the ‘raja’ has changed,” fumed noted sociologist Hetukar Jha.
An ardent admirer of Papiya’s scholarly abilities, Jha is pained that CM, Nitish Kumar did not utter a single word to console the bereaved family members during the last five days.