The West Bengal government has transferred over 500 bureaucrats ahead of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The move has drawn criticism from the opposition BJP, who allege it is an attempt to manipulate the electoral process.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday describing the killings in Birbhum the day before as "heinous", said the culprits should not be forgiven.
One was nabbed from the West Bengal-Jharkhand boundary in Birbhum, one from Rampurhat and the third from Malda district on Tuesday night, a police officer said.
Another explosion "linked to illegal firecrackers" took place in West Bengal on Monday, the third such blast within a span of just seven days.
A woman who had suffered burns in the petrol bomb attack in Bogtui village in Birbhum district last week died in a hospital on Monday, raising the toll to nine, a police officer said.
Families in West Bengal allege that Delhi Police illegally detained and deported their relatives, living and working in Delhi, to Bangladesh. They claim the deportations were based on the fact that they spoke Bengali.
The Calcutta high court on Wednesday directed CFSL Delhi to immediately collect necessary materials for forensic examination at Bogtui village in Bengal's Birbhum district, where at least eight people were charred to death in the suspected fallout of a TMC panchayat official's murder.
Taking a tough stance, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said suspects in the Rampurhat killings will be hunted down and arrested unless they surrender, and asserted that the police would ensure the strictest punishment for the culprits.
The Congress leader in Lok Sabha and other party members were stopped at Sriniketan More near the village in Birbhum district, and they sat on the road and staged a demonstration demanding that they be allowed to visit the village and meet the kin of the deceased.
The cycle of violence resulting from the increasing criminalisation of politics cannot stop, will not stop, unless there is a wider political consensus against relying on criminal mafias for electoral purposes, argues Virendra Kapoor.
Buildings were decorated with colourful lights and earthen lamps dotted houses as people across the country thronged temples and celebrated Diwali with pomp on Monday.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday filed cases in connection with the killing of eight people in West Bengal's Birbhum district, shortly after the Calcutta high court directed the central probe agency to take over investigation into the case, a senior official said.
Eight people -- all women and children -- were beaten and burnt alive by a mob on Tuesday.
The West Bengal police's bomb squad recovered crude bombs recovered near the home of Palash Sheikh, the absconding accused in the Bhadu Sheikh murder case, at Bogtui village, Birbhum district.
As soon as the Zero Hour began, several BJP MPs showed placards and raised slogans against the West Bengal government, led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Saying she was "sorry" for the police-villagers clash at Loba village in Birbhum district, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday denied it had anything to do with land acquisition and said the police had shown patience in dealing with the situation.
'We were sleeping when suddenly we heard the sounds of bombs exploding'
The Central Bureau of Investigation's arrest of senior Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mondal -- a loyalist of party supremo Mamata Banerjee -- in the alleged cattle smuggling scam on Thursday threatens his three-decade-long political career, which has been marked by controversies and strong-arm tactics.
Police said the clash broke out when BJP activists travelling in a mini truck to the rally at Suri had an altercation with the local TMC workers while passing through Simurali in the district.
Nobel laureate Amartya Sen moved the Calcutta high court, appealing against a notice of the Visva-Bharati university that asked him to vacate 13 decimal of land at his Santiniketan residence by May 6.
While the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress alleged that the killings were a fallout of the TMC's infighting, the ruling party pointed fingers at the grand old party of India.
Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, currently facing recommendations for expulsion from the Lok Sabha in a cash-for-query row, was tasked with strengthening the party's organisation in West Bengal's Nadia district ahead of the 2024 general elections, in a clear message of support from the TMC.
The Supreme Court on Friday took suo motu cognisance of a horrific incident of gang rape of a young tribal woman by 13 villagers in West Bengal's Birbhum district and issued notice to the state government.
A steady drizzle in the evening brought premature end to evening practice sessions of Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bengaluru on the eve of their IPL 2025 opening match on Saturday.
Amid high drama, Bharatiya Janata Party vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi was on Thursday arrested along with party leaders for defying prohibitory orders when they tried to enter trouble-torn Makra village in Birbhum district, made out of bounds for politicians by Trinamool government.
'I can only say that it was a revenge killing. We have seen everything from inside our houses. We ran into our dwellings on hearing a mob approaching Sonu's house and hurling bombs. After that, I don't know anything'
The meeting took place at Bamni Kali Temple at Suri in Birbhum district on Saturday which Adhikari visited ahead of Kali Puja celebrations.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday issued summonses to two Trinamool Congress leaders, including MP and popular Bengali actor Dev, for questioning in connection with its probes into money laundering cases, an official said.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday arrested senior Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mondal from his residence in Bolpur for allegedly not cooperating in its probe into a cattle smuggling case, an official said.
The move came after a nine-member delegation of Bharatiya Janata Party MPs from West Bengal met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and sought his intervention and action against the perpetrators of the crime.
The seven have been booked on the charge of murder and other sections of the Indian Penal Code, a CID official said.
Hours after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took a tough stance and ordered the hunting down of all suspects of the Birbhum carnage including her party colleagues, the police on Thursday arrested a local Trinamool Congress boss Anarul Hossain from near a hotel in the pilgrimage town of Tarapith.
The silence of death hangs over West Bengal's Bogtui village, where nine people, mostly children and women, were burnt alive last week in revenge for the murder of a Trinamool Congress leader.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has asked state ministers to begin a sit-in outside Nobel laureate Amartya Sen's residence in Santiniketan in Birbhum district to protest against the Visva-Bharati's eviction notice, an official said.
'Mamata needs to address the anger and resentment among various sections of the Hindu community because low-scale communal violence has always paid richer electoral dividends for the BJP.'
Saifuddin Laskar (47), TMC area president of Bamungachi area in Joynagar was shot dead from close range near his house by miscreants when he went out to offer prayers in the morning, the police said.
With villagers opposing her return, the tribal girl allegedly gang raped on the order of a kangaroo court in Birbhum district would be provided a job under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Guarantee Scheme and a house by the state government near her village.
Families spread across the nation bid their final goodbyes to the soldiers killed in hand-to-hand fighting with Chinese troops in Ladakh's Galwan area. People gathered in large numbers to attend the last rites of the soldiers.
The Supreme Court on Friday directed the West Bengal government to pay Rs 5 lakh compensation in addition to already sanctioned Rs 50,000 to the 20-year-old Birbhum gang rape victim.
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