Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, March 24: Within minutes of the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee took her police to the task for the gruesome killings of women and children in Bogtui village in Birbhum district, the alleged kingpin of the crime and Trinamool Congress leader Anarul Sheikh was picked up from nearby Tarapith on Thursday.
Banerjee visited the scene of Tuesday’s heinous incident and met the family members of the victims and other villagers and took the local police to task for failing to act in time after the local panchayat pradhan Bhadu Sheikh was attacked and killed. Following his death, a group of people allegedly attacked about a dozen houses in the village, locked six women and two children in a house after beating them and burnt them alive. The charred bodies of the victims were recovered the next day.
Banerjee lashed out at the police, stating that the “incident could have been avoided if the police had gone immediately”. “The DIB (District Intelligence Bureau) and IC (inspector in charge) did not fulfil their responsibility. Action must be taken against those who knowingly did not perform their duty,” said Banerjee.
The incident had its immediate political fallout with the BJP accusing the TMC of continuing with the political violence that started with the results of the assembly elections declared last year handing out the TMC sweeping victory over the BJP crushing its dream of forming a government for the first time in West Bengal.
After hearing the grievances of the villagers, Banerjee said the suspects would be hunted down if they refused to surrender. Battling a furious political backlash over the savage killings and accused by the opposition BJP of condoning political violence, the Chief Minister also suspected that “something big” was behind the incident.
Banerjee announced Rs 2 lakh compensation for rebuilding the scorched homes. Apart from this, she announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the next of the kin of the victims, and Rs 50,000 each to those injured. Promising jobs to ten families affected by the violence, Banerjee added that she would ensure “speedy justice”.
“I never believed something so barbaric can happen in modern Bengal. Mothers and children were killed. Your family members died but it is my heart that was crushed…,” Banerjee said, surrounded by the family members and relatives of those killed, besides villagers. Alleging a bigger conspiracy, she called for “stringent action” and said the police would investigate all angles. “Police will ensure strictest punishment is handed out to culprits responsible for the Rampurhat carnage. The case filed before the court should be watertight,” Banerjee said.
She summoned a top police officer right there and instructed him to punish policemen found negligent. “I don’t want any excuses that people have run away. I want people responsible to be arrested and policemen to be punished for lapses. Witnesses must be given protection by police from possible attacks.
Six women and two children were locked in their homes and burnt alive by the violent mob in what was believed to be retaliation after Bhadu Sheikh was killed in a crude bomb attack. Witnesses told the chief minister that they saw their families attacked. They named local Trinamool leader Anarul Sheikh as one of the attackers.
“Anarul is a bad person. He beat up my sons earlier too. Bhadu’s men also attacked my sons,” said Hasina Bibi, the relative of a victim. “After Bhadu died, his three brothers and his sons got together and set the fires. They killed our mothers by stabbing them. Then they set it on fire,” said Mofiza Bibi, whose family members were killed.
Twenty people have been arrested so far. Bhadu Sheikh’s sons are among the suspects picked up by the police. Banerjee has vowed strict action “regardless of political colours”, but the BJP has demanded a central investigation, the sacking of the Chief Minister and President’s Rule.
Many had fled the village after the incident, allegedly fearing reprisals or arrest. Two FIRs were filed – one over the Trinamool leader’s murder, and the other over the killing of villagers. Though the two incidents have seeded a political row, many villagers claim a local rivalry provoked the violence.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Thursday issued a notice to West Bengal government, its state police chief in connection with the Bagtui killings.
West Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar condemned the Birbhum violence and said he couldn’t recall any incident as horrifying as this in last 10-20 years in Bengal. “CM Mamata Banerjee should have come earlier. We can’t recall if something as horrific as this (Birbhum violence) had happened in the last 10-20 years,” he said. Echoing Vijayvargiya’s words, he said, “These killings resemble the barbarism of the middle ages, people were locked & set ablaze alive.”
“CM Mamata Banerjee wants to buy dead bodies by providing money & job to families of deceased. There’ll be many such incidents if government did not look into root causes. She can’t control the law & order situation. We want an impartial probe by CBI & NIA,” Majumdar said.
Senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya claimed that there is a nexus of criminals, officials and political party instead of democracy in the state. “Dissidents against govt are either manhandled or are murdered. Governor is also treated in this manner. If situation aggravates like this, we’ll demand President’s rule,” he added.
The West Bengal Congress president and the party leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said, “I’ve demanded that Section 355 of Constitution be invoked in state. We have also demanded a Court-monitored CBI probe. Bengal CM had come here on a picnic today. She came on a helicopter, held meeting, had food and then left. She should have listened to the locals,” he said.
He called the incident a ‘living example of medieval barbarism’. ‘There’s ‘danav raj’ instead of ‘manav raj’ here. CM has destroyed the state. Connivance b/w Police&TMC is looting the state. No other state is facing a situation like that in Bengal,’ he said.
Meanwhile, a 13-member delegation of Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday and demanded the removal of West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, describing him as a “threat to parliamentary democratic system. In a letter to Shah, signed by the TMC’s Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha floor leaders, Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Derek O’Brien respectively, the party claimed the “dangerous, inhuman and brutal” killings of eight people in the incident was not an outcome of any political confrontation.