KOLKATA: Eight years after the convoy of former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and then steel minister Ramvilas Paswan were attacked in a landmine explosion and alleged police atrocities that followed to 'avenge' the attack which triggered off a bloody Maoist movement in the western districts of West Bengal in 2008, chargesheet of the attack naming the accused was finally filed by CID Salboni in Midnapore court recently, sources revealed.
The delay has been blamed by officials on time taken to collect vital details of the case, including wait for forensic report. “Some 11 sections of IPC including sedition (Section 124 A) , attempt to murder (Sec 307) and criminal conspiracy (Sec 120A) have been invoked in the chargesheet. A total of 9 people have been named in the chargesheet, all of whom have connection with CPI (Maoist),” a Midnapore court lawyer told Express.
“Of the nine, three persons – Kalpana Maity alias Anu, Manasaram Hembram alias Bikash and former CPI (Maoist) state secretary Sudeep Congdar alias Kanchan are in jail. Rest five – Sunil Hansda, Sahadeb Mahato, Lakshmiram Murmu, Bhagwat Hansda and Karan Hembram – are out in bail.
However, the person who planted the bomb and triggered it – Badal Mahato – is not mentioned in the chargesheet,” the lawyer said. Badal had surrendered in front of Mamata Banerjee in 2012 and is now a policeman in Midnapore under the Maoist Rehabilitation Package.
A landmine blast was triggered in Salboni on November 2, 2008 at a convoy of then Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and then steel minister Ramvilas Paswan while the convoy was returning to Kolkata after visiting a site of Jindal Steel plant in Salboni in Paschim Medinipur district. State police allegedly committed atrocities on women in Chotopeliya village on November 5 as a 'punishment' of the attack.
That triggered off Lalgarh movement and heightened Maoist activities that claimed more than 700 lives till 2011, when Maoist politburo member Malloujula Koteswara Rao alias Kishenji, leader of the Maoist movement in Bengal at that time, was gunned down.