New Delhi: The Calcutta High Court on Friday handed over the probe into the death of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Bhadu Sheikh to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and also said that this case was linked to the Birbhum violence incident.
According to a report by news agency ANI, the HC Bench, hearing the murder case, said that prima facie it appears that the murder of Sheikh, who was the TMC deputy Panchayat Pradhan from Bogtui, Birbhum, and the arson in the district are ‘interconnected’.
Earlier on Thursday, the central agency had submitted a progress report on the March 21 incident of violence to the HC Bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj.
The HC observed that the report further suggests that the incident is a fallout of rivalry among the members of two groups and the burning of the houses leading to the death of at least eight persons was a retaliatory action.
In its order on Friday, HC said, “The investigation in the case of Bhadu Sheikh murder should also be done by the CBI as both the incidents are interconnected and the investigating agency in Bhadu Sheikh murder case is trying to cover up the issue which will affect the investigation by CBI.”
Meanwhile, the central agency on Thursday arrested four absconding persons from Mumbai for their alleged involvement in the Rampurhat violence. These are the first arrests after the CBI took over the case and lodged an FIR following the HC order.
The arrested have been identified as Bappa SK alias Sal Mohamad, Sabu SK alias Sadril SK, Taj Mohammad alias Chand and Serajul SK alias Poltu.
“The arrests were made on the basis of technical evidence. They are among 21 accused who were named in the FIR,” a senior CBI officer said, adding, “The other accused in the case will be arrested soon. CBI teams are conducting raids to nab other accused in the case.”
The arrested accused were produced before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s court to get transit remand till April 10.
As many as nine people were killed in the Rampurhat area of West Bengal’s Birbhum last month after a mob allegedly set houses on fire following the killing of TMC leader Bhadu Sheikh.
As per the FIR copy, Rampurhat Police, on March 21 at 9.35 pm had received information that some houses in Bogtul village had caught fire and were burning.
As soon as the police reached the village, they found that “eight houses and some straw heaps caught devastative fire and were burning fiercely,” the FIR copy said.
The FIR further said that most of the houses were completely gutted and were found to have been ransacked. While the search operation was underway, seven charred bodies were recovered from the houses. One injured person who had rescued from the house succumbed to her burn injuries later during treatment at a hospital.
All the bodies were charred beyond recognition. The bodies were immediately shifted to Rampurhat College and Hospital for post-mortem examination, the FIR stated.
Notably, the Calcutta High Court on March 25 had ordered the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the state government to investigate the violence to hand over the investigation the CBI and ordered the SIT to hand over all the documents related to the case to the CBI and all the 22 suspects, including the TMC block chief Anarul Hossain, arrested by them.