E-Paper
CBI arrests 1 in Birbhum killings case, questions Purulia cops in Congress leader’s murder
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday arrested Samir Sheikh, a resident of Bogtui village in Bengal’s Birbhum district, in connection with the March 21 violence in which nine people were killed in retaliation to the murder of Trinamool Congress (TMC) panchayat leader Bhadu Sheikh
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday arrested Samir Sheikh, a resident of Bogtui village in Bengal’s Birbhum district, in connection with the March 21 violence in which nine people were killed in retaliation to the murder of Trinamool Congress (TMC) panchayat leader Bhadu Sheikh.
The Calcutta high court ordered the CBI probe into Bhadu Sheikh’s murder on Friday. Till then, the central agency was probing only the massacre in the village. Six of the deceased were women and two were children.
It is alleged that at least 10 houses were bombed and set on fire by Sheikh’s associates and relatives.
The CBI arrested four Bogtui residents from Mumbai on Thursday in connection with the massacre.
On March 25, the division bench of Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj ordered a CBI probe into the massacre, taking the special investigation team (SIT) of the state police off the case although it arrested 22 people, including TMC’s Rampurhat community block unit president Anarul Hossain.
Sheikh’s murder and the killings that followed rocked the state with opposition parties targeting chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
Hossain claimed that he surrendered to the police following Banerjee’s order. The chief minister said in public that the attackers and the victims in both incidents were TMC supporters.
On Sunday, the CBI also questioned five police personnel at Jhalda in Purulia district in connection with the March 13 murder of local Congress councillor Tapan Kandu, officials of the probe agency said.
The five district police personnel - a woman sub-inspector, two constables and two home guards - were confined to their barracks on March 20 following charges of dereliction of duty during the murder on a road.
CBI officials took them to the scene of the crime. It has been alleged that a quick response vehicle of the police was parked closed to that location on March 13 but it did not move.
Kandu was shot from close range in front of his associates and several eyewitnesses. His wife, Purnima Kandu, who filed a petition before the Calcutta high court demanding a CBI probe, alleged that the police personnel, who were manning a security check point on the road during the murder, did not respond to the family’s request to rush to the crime scene which was within walking distance.
