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Birbhum violence case: Calcutta high court orders CBI probe into matter
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday met the families of the eight victims at Bogtui village in Birbhum district
KOLKATA: The Calcutta high court on Friday ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe the Birbhum violence case in which eight persons died in a house fire earlier this week following the alleged killing of local Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Bhadu Sheikh.
The court ordered the central agency to submit a progress report on April 7.
The HC on Wednesday initiated a suo motu case, and the state police yesterday submitted the case diary before the court.
A bench, comprising chief justice Prakash Shrivastava and justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj, on Friday observed that in the interest of justice and considering the circumstances of the instant case, the ongoing probe should be transferred to the CBI.
“We are not Bharatiya Janata Party, and hence we won’t comment on the court order. All we want to say is that there is a public perception that the central agency is being run by a particular political party. The CBI is yet to solve many cases, including the theft of the Nobel Prize of Rabindranath Tagore,” said Santanu Sen, TMC MP.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday met the families of the eight victims at Bogtui village in Birbhum district, and ordered the police to launch a statewide drive to recover illegal arms and explosives.
As pressure mounted on the TMC government, Banerjee also set up a special investigation team (SIT) to probe into the incident. She also provided compensations to the victims’ families, and ordered the arrest of a local party leader, along with suspending the officer in charge of the local police station.
“Every one wanted a CBI probe. People have lost faith in the state government. Earlier too, the state had formed multiple SITs to probe cases but the truth never came out. Now that the CBI has been handed over the case, we hope they will uncover the truth,” said Dilip Ghosh, BJP national vice president.
