CBI arrests 7 more suspects in Bogtui massacre in Bengal’s Birbhum

The Bogtui massacre was ordered in retaliation of a bomb attack on Bhadu Sheikh, deputy chief of the local TMC-controlled Barshal gram panchayat

KOLKATA: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday arrested seven more suspects in connection with the March 21 massacre at Bogtui village in West Bengal’s Birbhum district in which 10 people, most of them women and children, were killed.

Birbhum: Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officers with CFSL team conducts its investigation near the house where 10 people were burnt alive at Bogtui village in Birbhum district of West Bengal. (PTI File Photo)

CBI officials said the arrested men were identified as Bikir Ali, Noor Ali, Sher Ali, Asif Sheikh, Joshif Hossain, Jamirul Sheikh and Khairul Sheikh.

Nine people were earlier arrested for their alleged involvement in the killings, according to news agency PTI.

The massacre was ordered by Anarul Hossain, the former Rampurhat community block-1 unit president of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) after Bhadu Sheikh, deputy chief of the local TMC-controlled Barshal gram panchayat, was killed in a bomb attack on March 21 near Bogtui, according to CBI charge sheet filed in June.

The 1192-page charge sheet mentioned eyewitness accounts, security camera footage and statements by two of the three women who died of burn injuries at Rampurhat Medical College and Hospital. The rest of the victims - the youngest was an eight-year-old girl, Unmehani Khatun - died on the spot on the night of March 21.

Now in judicial custody, Hossain was arrested by the state police on chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s instructions when she visited Bogtui on March 24. He was charged with murder, arson, rioting with deadly weapons and criminal conspiracy before CBI took over the case on the Calcutta high court order on March 25.

CBI filed separate charge sheets for the murder of Bhadu Sheikh and the massacre that followed. The federal agency named four people as prime accused in Sheikh’s murder and 18 others, including Hossain, in the massacre case.

CBI stated that Sheikh’s murder was the fallout of rivalry between him and his associates over dubious land deals, illegal businesses and share of extortion money. The high court asked the CBI to probe Sheikh’s murder as well.