Kolkata: The Calcutta high court on Monday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file an affidavit with details on the bail granted by a district juvenile board to two minor boys who were arrested after the March 21 arson at Bogtui village in Bengal’s Birbhum district.
The death toll in the incident rose to 10 on Sunday when a 50-year-old woman died of burn injuries at a hospital in Birbhum. Nine of the victims, including two minors, were women. As many as 28 people have been arrested so far.
The division bench of chief justice Prakash Srivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj -- which ordered a CBI probe into the massacre on March 25 - received a status report from the probe agency on Monday.
Appearing for the CBI, assistant solicitor general Bilwadal Bhattacharya told the court that the two minors, who were kept at a special home, were recently granted bail by the juvenile justice board at Siuri town in Birbhum. Bhattacharya appealed for cancellation of the bail. The boys should not have been released in view of the nature of the crime and their suspected role in it, he said.
Appearing for one of the petitioners who had demanded a CBI probe, senior counsel Phiroze Edulji told the bench that the high court has the power to suo motu cancel a bail granted by a juvenile justice board.
{{/usCountry}}Appearing for one of the petitioners who had demanded a CBI probe, senior counsel Phiroze Edulji told the bench that the high court has the power to suo motu cancel a bail granted by a juvenile justice board.
{{/usCountry}}After hearing all parties, the bench asked the CBI to file an affidavit on this issue during the next hearing on May 10.
A CBI officer aware of the investigation told HT that last month the CBI appealed to the same juvenile justice board to let the minors take a polygraph test but it was rejected.
While ordering the CBI probe on March 25, the division bench took the special investigation team (SIT) of the state police off the case although it arrested 22 people, including Anarul Hossain, the Rampurhat community block unit president of the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
Bogtui village is located within 150 metres of the busy Rampurhat town. Around 10 houses in Bogtui were attacked and set on fire around 9.30 pm on March 21 in retaliation to the murder of TMC panchayat leader Bhadu Sheikh.
The CBI is also probing Bhadu Sheikh’s murder and his alleged involvement in extortion and sand and stone smuggling from local quarries.
The murder, and the killings that followed it, rocked the state with opposition parties targeting chief minister Mamata Banerjee who visited Bogtui village on March 24 and announced compensation for the victims. A few days later, she said in public that the attackers and the victims in both incidents were TMC supporters.
Anarul Hossain claimed that he surrendered to the police following Banerjee’s order.
After starting its investigation, the CBI took into custody the 22 people held by the state police. The agency arrested six more people, including Ritan Sheikh, an e-rickshaw driver who allegedly bought the petrol used in the arson.