The Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday arrested four persons from Mumbai in connection with an ongoing investigation of a case related to a brutal incident at Rampurhat in District Birbhum (West Bengal). This is the first set of arrests made in the case by the CBI.
The arrested suspects have been identified as Bappa SK alias Sal Mohamad, Sabu SK alias Sadril SK, Taj Mohammad alias Chand and Serajul SK alias Poltu.
According to the CBI sources, the accused persons involved in the Bogtui carnage at Rampurhat had absconded after the incident and the CBI planned a meticulous operation and managed to trace their hideout in Mumbai using technical and human intelligence. The arrested accused were produced before the jurisdictional court and were granted transit remand till April 10.
The agency officials stated that on March 21, Block President Bhadu Sheikh of Bogtui village was murdered by bomb blast injuries. After the incident, serious tension cropped up at Bogtui and surrounding areas over the issue of the murder. Eight houses and some straw heaps had caught fire.
"During the firefighting operations, four persons identified as Athara Bibi, Nazima Bibi, Keyam SK and Mina Bibi were recovered having burn injuries. They were immediately shifted to Rampurhat Medical College and Hospital with the help of local people. Most of the houses were completely gutted and also were found to have been ransacked," said a CBI official.
He added, "While the search operation was in progress, seven dead bodies in totally charred condition were recovered from the house of one Sona SK, which were found lying underneath the debris. All the bodies were charred to death beyond recognition and were sent for post-mortem."
"During the preliminary enquiry, it was learnt that as a retaliation of the incident of murder of Bhadu Sheikh, at least 22 followers and associates of Bhadu and 70 to 80 other persons in the form of an unruly mob had ransacked the houses of the persons and set fire to the houses with a view to kill the persons inside, as a result, eight persons were charred to death and four others sustained burn injuries. Later it was learnt that out of the four injured persons, Mina Bibi had succumbed to her injuries," the official said.
The CBI had registered a case on March 25, against 22 accused in compliance with the Calcutta High Court order and had taken over the investigation of the case, earlier registered on March 22 at Police Station Rampurhat.
