Terming the alleged non-cooperation of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government as an example "symptomatic of a systemic malaise", the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has sought a direction to West Bengal authorities to extend full cooperation to the CISF.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled development projects worth Rs 15,000 crore in West Bengal on Saturday. The prime minister unveiled the projects at an official function in Krishnanagar in Nadia district. Addressing the programme, he said these initiatives were aimed at making West Bengal a developed state.
Days after the prime accused in the arson and violence in Bengal's Bogtui village was found hanging in a temporary office of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the probe agency on Wednesday shifted the makeshift set up in Rampurhat to the metropolis, a senior official said.
As per preliminary findings of the forensic experts, who conducted the tests on the charred bodies found inside the houses that were allegedly set on fire by unidentified people early on Tuesday, the victims were first badly beaten up and then burnt alive, an official told PTI from Rampurhat hospital.
Experts of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Delhi, who arrived here on Friday, collected samples from the place of occurrence in Bogtui village, which is almost deserted following the gruesome incident on the night of March 21.
Maintaining that the INDIA alliance is for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and not for assembly polls in any state, the Congress on Friday asserted that the opposition bloc of 27 parties exists and will fight together.
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.
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.
An air of gloom hangs in the Bogtui village post-arson as most villagers have moved out from their homes and several others are making moves.
Family members of Bhadu Sheikh, the TMC panchayat leader whose killing on Monday is suspected to have sparked off the attack with petrol bombs on some 10 houses in Bogtui village on the outskirts of Rampurhat town, claimed that Sheikh's sons were among those arrested.
The seven have been booked on the charge of murder and other sections of the Indian Penal Code, a CID official said.
Eight persons died in the early hours of Tuesday after their houses caught fire at Rampurhat in Birbhum district, police said.
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.
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.
Dhankhar in his letter claimed that the state of governance in the state was 'cliff hanging' and had been further strained by the barbarity witnessed in the Birbhum killings.
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.
The National Human Rights Commission issued a notice to the West Bengal government and the state's police chief on Thursday in connection with the killing of eight people in Birbhum district, and sought a report within four weeks, detailing the steps taken to ensure the safety of people, officials said.
'We were sleeping when suddenly we heard the sounds of bombs exploding'
The CBI source alleged that the body of the accused was found in the washroom of the office which the agency has set up in a guest house in Rampurhat.
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.
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.
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.
On May 1, SpiceJet's Mumbai-Durgapur flight encountered severe turbulence during its descent phase, injuring 14 passengers and three cabin crew members.
These are the first arrests made by the CBI since it took over the probe into the March 21 killings in Bogtui village following the Calcutta high court's order.
His rise has been phenomenal after the party came to power in 2011. He runs the local syndicate which is involved in extortion from local businesses and also involved in illegal mining of sand
'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'
'How can just 25 of us indulge in fisticuffs when there were more than 100 MLAs of the TMC in the House?'
In the over 20-page report, the central probe agency has also stated that the seven persons whose charred bodies were recovered from inside one of the burnt houses in Bogtui village, were "assaulted before being burnt alive".
Ninety coins in the denomination of Rs 5 and Rs 10 and ornaments like chains, nose rings, earrings, bangles, anklets, wrist bands and watches were found from the stomach of the 26-year-old.
The Railways cancelled three trains from Howrah and diverted as many in view of the train accident in Sainthia, which has claimed 60 lives. The cancelled trains include the Howrah-Amritsar and Howrah-Rampurhat-Howrah passenger, according to the Eastern Railway.
Four persons were killed on Tuesday night and eight others injured in a blast that took place when the victims were allegedly making bombs near Rampurhat town in Birbhum district, police said.
West Bengal minister Nure Alam Chowdhury was on Sunday seriously injured by a mob which took him hostage following a dispute over a piece of land owned by a college in Rampurhat of Birbhum district, the police said.
The main accused in the brutal murder of a college student in North 24 Parganas district, was on Wednesday arrested from Rampurhat in Birbhum district, the police said.
Eight people -- all women and children -- were beaten and burnt alive by a mob on Tuesday.
Train services on the Khana-Rampurhat section of the Howrah division in Birbhum district, where a high speed express collided with another, were restored on Tuesday.
A CPI-M leader was stabbed to dead and two others seriously injured by unknown persons in a procession early Monday at Nischintapur in Rampurhat of Birbhum district.
Around 35,000 to 40,000 chickens have died in Birbhum district alone.
''Over 3.50 lakh birds in Birbhum and 26,000 in South Dinajpur district will be culled from tomorrow,'' Animal Resources Development Minister Anisur Rahaman said on Tuesday.
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