After eight people were killed in violence that ensued after the death of a Trinamool Congress worker in a village in West Bengal’s Birbhum district, chief minister Mamata Banerjee said on Wednesday that she is not justifying the killings and she would visit Rampurbhat on Thursday. “I will be visiting Rampurhat tomorrow. This is not UP. We had also sent our delegation to Hathras. However, they were barred from entering the spot,” Banerjee alleged.
Condemning the incident, Banerjee said “no one will be spared” and alleged that this is a “big conspiracy as some people are trying to defame West Bengal”.
“The government is ours, we are concerned about people in our state. We would never want anyone to suffer. Birbhum, Rampurhat incidents are unfortunate. I have immediately dismissed the officer in charge, Sub-Divisional Police Officer,” she said.
The BJP has formed a five-member fact-finding committee to look into the incident, Union home minister Amit Shah has asked for a report from the West Bengal government in the next 72 hours.
Opposition parties have claimed that the TMC is behind the incident, a charge denied by the ruling party. The BJP raised the issue in the West Bengal assembly on Tuesday and staged a walkout. The party MLAs termed the incident “middle-age barbarism” while demanding a statement from chief minister Mamata Banerjee over the cause of the violence and the steps being taken over it. The party also demanded the resignation of Banerjee. State BJP president Sukanta Majumder said Banerjee had lost her moral right to be the CM. “We are demanding the resignation of chief minister and state home minister Mamata Banerjee. It is not clear whether the state government is running a circus or a government,” Majumder said.
TMC general secretary Kunal Ghosh said the incident had nothing to do with politics. “Deaths of the locals in fire incident is sad. But this incident has no political connection. This is a local village dispute. The panchayat deputy chief who was murdered was a well-known person and his death has angered the villagers, leading to the violent protest. The fire incident took place at night but cops and fire brigade took immediate action,” Ghosh said in a tweet in Bangla.
Two children are among eight persons charred to death in the Birbhum incident. Eight houses caught fire in Bogtui village near Rampurhat town of Birbhum district. The incident took place soon after the alleged murder of TMC leader Bhadu Sheikh, deputy chief of the local panchayat, West Bengal director general of police Manoj Malaviya said.
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