KOLKATA: A local Trinamool Congress leader was arrested on Thursday in connection with the revenge killing of eight persons, including two children, after their houses were fire-bombed in Birbhum district following a ruling party functionary’s murder.
That the arrest came only after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee dropped his name in public, asking the police to apprehend him immediately if he doesn’t surrender, showed the force in khaki in poor light.
Anarul Hossain, the Trinamool president of Rampurhat-I block, who was at large, was arrested after tracking the location of the towers from where his cellphone was receiving signals. He is an influential party man in the area.
“I am asking the police to arrest Anarul if he doesn’t surrender. He should have sought police intervention immediately after the killing of the deputy chief of the local panchayat Bhadu Sheikh,” Mamata said after visiting the carnage site in Bogtui village.
Earlier in the day, the autopsy report of the victims revealed that some of them were beaten and stabbed before being set ablaze.
“Before setting our house ablaze, they barged in and assaulted my wife and daughter. They murdered seven of our family and set them ablaze. I saw my house on fire and fled,” said Mihilal Sheikh, an eyewitness.
The Calcutta High Court on Thursday reserved its order in a suo motu petition, along with a bunch of PILs seeking a probe by the CBI or the NIA.
A seven-member team from Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Delhi, will proceed to Bogtui upon reaching Kolkata on Thursday evening to collect samples from the crime scene as directed by the high court.
Sukanta Majumdar, BJP’s state president, alleged he and his party leaders were waylaid by the police on their way to the Bogtui on several occasions.
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was allowed to visit Bogtui by the police only after Mamata left the spot.
The heat of the carnage spread to Kolkata as a section of students of Jadavpur University took out a protest march.
Earlier in the day, on visiting Bogtui village, the scene of Tuesday's fire bombing and burning of eight people, Banerjee vowed that the police would ensure the strictest punishment for the guilty and none would be spared.
She also indicated a larger clean-up of her administration by ordering a "dragnet to unearth secret caches of illicit arms and bombs" across the state.
"Police will ensure strictest punishment is handed out to culprits responsible for the Rampurhat carnage. The case filed before the court should be water-tight," she said.
The orders follow the murder of TMC panchayat leader Bhadu Sheikh at a crossroad near the village of Bogtui, on the outskirts of Rampurhat town in Birbhum district of Bengal.
In an apparent revenge attack, petrol bombs were hurled at 10 houses in the village and 8 people including women and children killed by burning within hours.
The attacks and counter-attacks are widely believed by locals to be the result of rivalry over illicit sand mining, though the police is still investigating the cause and sequence of events.
The chief minister met family members of the victims and offered them permanent government jobs and compensation to rebuild their houses.
She also visited the house of Sheikh, and gave the same offers to his next of kin.
Banerjee announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the next of the kin of the victims, and Rs 2 lakh each for rebuilding the damaged houses.
Those injured will be provided with Rs 50,000 each.
Security in Bogtui village was also beefed up on Thursday evening following Banerjee's directive.
Over 50 policemen were posted in Bogtui village while CCTVs are also being installed to increase security for the villagers there who have complained they lived in ear, a senior officer of district police said.
Around 69 people of five families had fled to neighbouring villages following the series of attacks and counter-attacks, another police officer said.
A fact-finding team sent by BJP from Delhi and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury also visited Bogtui village.
Both had been stopped en-route earlier by the police as the chief minister was visiting the spot but were later allowed to proceed.
The BJP team, which included former Uttar Pradesh DGP Brij Lal, Mumbai ex-police commissioner Satya Pal Singh and Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar, also assured help to the families of those killed in the violence.
"We have come here to witness the situation in the aftermath of the mass murder. This (TMC) government has lost its moral right to govern.What happened in Bogtui is a shame for humanity," Majumdar told reporters after visiting the village.
"The chief minister had been claiming that all culprits will be punished. The police, on the other hand, are trying to hush-up the matter," he alleged.
Meanwhile the Calcutta High court which met on Thursday reserved its order on a suo motu petition on the mass murder, along with a bunch of PILs seeking a probe by CBI or NIA into the killings.
The state opposed the plea for a probe by central agencies pointing out that an enquiry is being conducted by a Special Investigation Team formed by the West Bengal government and prayed that it be given time to complete the probe.
The court had also ordered a forensic probe by the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Delhi on Wednesday.
Additional Solicitor General Y J Dastur who submitted that the CBI or the NIA are ready to initiate a probe if an order is passed by the high court to that effect, also informed that a seven-member team from CFSL will proceed to Bogtui after reaching Kolkata on Thursday evening to collect samples from the crime scene.
A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a CBI probe into the death of eight people in a fire tragedy in West Bengal's Birbhum district.
The plea filed by Vishnu Gupta, the national president of the Hindu Sena, alleged that local authorities are trying to shield the real culprits of the ghastly incident under the influence of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the state.
"The police administration of the state of West Bengal has miserably failed in discharging its duty and responsibility in protecting the life and property of the people of village Bogtui, district Birbhum, West Bengal."
The ghastly incident of murder, arson and loot, which took place on March 21, 2022, has resulted in the murder of more than eight persons of the village, which include women and children.
"Further, the fear and insecurity and lack of faith in the police administration is also evident from the exodus of people from that village to some other safe places. Therefore, it requires interference of this court to protect the fundamental right of the people in Birbhum district," the plea said.
It has sought directions to the investigating agency to take over all the FIRs registered by the local police in connection with the incident.
A fact-finding committee of the BJP visited Bogtui village in West Bengal's Birbhum district on Thursday, where eight people were burnt alive earlier this week, and spoke to the locals as well as relatives of the victims there.
The team, comprising former Uttar Pradesh DGP Brij Lal, Mumbai ex-police commissioner Satya Pal Singh and Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar, assured all help to the families of those killed in the violence that broke out following a TMC panchayat official's murder.
"We have come here to witness the situation in the aftermath of the mass murder. This (TMC) government has lost its moral right to govern. What happened in Bogtui is a shame for humanity," Majumdar told reporters after visiting the village.
"The chief minister had been claiming that all culprits will be punished. The police, on the other hand, are trying to hush-up the matter," he alleged.
Singh said the delegation's convoy had to cross several hurdles to reach the village.
"TMC activists blocked roads in protest against our visit. We, however, managed to reach the village, and speak to the relatives of the victims and the locals," he said.
BJP president J P Nadda had formed the five-member committee on Tuesday, which includes four MPs, to visit the site of the fire tragedy and probe the matter.
Former IPS officers K C Ramamurthy and Bharati Ghosh are the two other members of the panel.
Singh said the committee would submit its report in a day or two.
Taking a tough stance, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, during the day, stated that suspects of the Birbhum killings would be hunted down and arrested unless they surrendered.
Banerjee also met the family members of the victims and offered them permanent government jobs and monetary assistance.
A Trinamool Congress delegation met Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday and sought the ouster of West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar as a political fight over the horrifying killing of eight persons in the state's Birbhum district continued to echo inside and outside Parliament.
In Lok Sabha, BJP MP Saumitra Khan rushed to the Well from his seat in the last rows, shouting angry comments against the state's TMC government and sat in the aisle briefly, alleging that Bengal has become a "land of terror".
Congress member Gaurav Gogoi also slammed the state government for not allowing the party's leader in the House Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury to visit the site of the violence and stopping him nearly 90 km away from the spot, saying it is a blow to democracy.
TMC leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay spoke in Lok Sabha about his meeting with Shah.
The home minister told the delegation that there was no politics over the issue and that firm punishment should be given to the guilty, he said.
After the meeting, Bandyopadhyay told reporters that his party has demanded that the governor be removed, alleging that he was working against constitutional norms.
"Parliamentary system is under threat from him," he said.
Dhankar has had a confrontational relationship with the state government headed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and the latest incident has seen him putting the dispensation in the dock again.
Banerjee has in turn hit back at him.
Khan's angry tirade in Lok Saba drew sympathy from many other BJP members but Speaker Om Birla expressed his displeasure, saying the House cannot run in such a manner.
With barbs being exchanged between the two sides, he said members should maintain restrain and dignity.
Eight people, including two children, were charred to death as nearly a dozen huts were set ablaze in Birbhum district early Tuesday in a suspected fallout of the murder of a ruling TMC panchayat official.
(With PTI Inputs)