Reacting to the High Court order, the Trinamool Congress said the state government was conducting an impartial inquiry into the matter
The police said that around 10-12 houses in Rampurhat, in Birbhum district were set on fire on Monday night. ANI
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been told to take over the case of eight people burnt alive in West Bengal’s Birbhum. The Calcutta High Court transferred the case to the CBI after denying a request by the Mamata Banerjee government to not hand over the investigation to the central agency.
The CBI will submit the status report to the court in a week. The next hearing will be on 7 April.
Reacting to the Calcutta High Court order to transfer the investigation to the CBI, the Trinamool Congress said that the state government was doing an impartial inquiry into the matter. The party denied the allegations of the opposition and added that even a party leader has been arrested in the case. The impartiality of the state government cannot be questioned, it added.
As many as eight people were burnt to death in the Rampurhat area of Birbhum on 22 March, 2022, after a mob allegedly set houses on fire following the killing of Trinamool Congress leader Bhadu Sheikh.
Shortly after the death, violence broke out in Rampurhat when a mob allegedly locked up 10-12 houses with the residents inside and set them on fire.
On her visit to Birbhum on Thursday, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had asserted that strict action would be taken against the perpetrators of violence.
On visiting Bogtui village, Banerjee also vowed that the police would ensure 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.
After local residents complained to the chief minister that local Trinamool Congress block president Anarul Hussain had hatched the conspiracy to set the houses ablaze, she ordered the DGP to arrest him. Anarul was arrested from Tarapith of the district later in the evening.
So far, 21 people have been arrested in the case.
“I will ensure that the police carry out an impartial investigation and stringent action is taken against the culprits,” said Banerjee, while expressing grief at the incident.
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.
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.
“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,” Majumdar alleged.
With inputs from agencies
Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.