Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court ordered on Friday that the murder of a Trinamool Congress leader, which allegedly led to a vengeance attack in which nine people were burned to death in West Bengal’s Birbhum district last month, should be investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The High Court had previously ordered a CBI investigation into the heinous Birbhum killings that occurred on March 21 in Bogtui village.
With a plea claiming the two incidents were linked, the court was asked to order a CBI investigation into the murder of Trinamool politician Bhadu Sheikh.
The judges ordered that the murder case against Sheikh be transferred from the state police to the CBI for further investigation.
On March 22, the state police chief stated that the violence in Bogtui occurred within an hour of the murder of Sheikh, the local panchayat’s deputy chief.
Bogtui is around a kilometre distant from the site of Sheikh’s murder.
CBI investigators on Thursday arrested four West Bengal residents from Mumbai, suspected of being involved in the Birbhum killings, an officer of the agency said.
These were the first arrests made by the agency since it took over the probe into the killings.
“The four accused had direct involvement in the killings and had fled from Bogtui to Mumbai on March 22. They were apprehended from their hideout early on Thursday morning after their mobile tower location was tracked.
“Of the four arrested accused, two persons — identified as Bappa and Shabu Sheikh — were named in an FIR lodged in connection with the killings. The other two were identified as Taj Mohammad and Serajul,” he said.
A Special Investigation Team has been assigned by the state government was previously investigating the burning alive of nine individuals after intruders dropped petrol bombs on multiple houses in the village.
On March 25, the CBI filed a case against 22 people in connection with the event.
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