Kolkata: The Central Bureau of Investigation has named 21 suspects in its FIR in the Birbhum arson case. In Birbhum’s Bogtui village in West Bengal on March 21, eight people, including women and children, were killed after miscreants set fire to ten houses.
In its FIR, the CBI stated that preliminary enquiry reveals that the violence was meted out in “retaliation” to avenge the murder of Bhadu Sheikh, who was the TMC ‘upa-pradhan’ of the local panchayat. He was allegedly attacked with crude bombs by unknown assailants the day before.
Further, the FIR states that an “unruly mob of 70-80 people” ransacked the houses of the victims and set them on fire with a “view to kill the persons inside”.
CBI PROBE
The CBI has been ordered to take over the investigation by the Calcutta High Court. The CBI team has now visited the Rampurhat police station, taken numerous papers and documents connected to the case, and travelled to the scene of the violence.
A team from the CBI’s Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory (CFSL) collected samples for forensic analysis and inspected the residences that were destroyed in the Friday fire.
Birbhum Violence
Nearly a dozen houses were set ablaze in Rampurhat village in Bengal’s Birbhum district on Tuesday, killing at least eight people, including two children. The incident took place soon after the alleged murder of TMC panchayat leader Bhadu Pradhan, who was attacked with crude bombs by unknown assailants the day before.
The incident also triggered a war of words between the BJP and TMC.
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