The Calcutta High Court on Friday handed over the case of violence in West Bengal’s Birbhum, which claimed eight lives, to the Central Bureau of Investigation. While the state government had set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the matter, the HC directed it to hand over case papers and arrested people to CBI. It also asked the central probe agency to file a progress report by April 7.
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 party leader has been arrested in the case.
The HC had taken suo moto cognizance of the incident which left eight people, including women and children, dead, following the murder of a deputy gram pradhan, associated with the TMC.
A set of PILs seeking CBI or NIA probe into the incident were also taken up for hearing by the court along with the suo motu petition.
On Thursday, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee visited Bogtui village and ordered hunting down of all suspected of involvement, following which the police arrested local Trinamool Congress boss Anarul Hossain from near a hotel in the pilgrimage town of Tarapith.
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.
Congress leader Adhir Chowdhary, whose car was allegedly stopped more than once before reaching Bogtui, alleged that several bodies had disappeared from the site of violence. He said, “She (CM) alleged a big conspiracy behind this incident and that is why she has instructed the police to take strict action. The bodies of two children have gone missing. The CM is trying to suppress the facts.”
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.
from | The Financial Express https://ift.tt/zfj80rn
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