Amid an outcry over the death of a 16-year-old girl who was gang-raped twice and had set herself ablaze, the West Bengal government on Thursday condemned politics over her body and claimed that it had fully cooperated with the bereaved family.
Signalling stepped up operations in junglemahal after withdrawal of the offer of ceasefire by the Maoists and the killing of two Trinamool Congressmen, the West Bengal government has recalled senior Indian Police Service officer Manoj Verma as superintendent of police, counter insurgency force.
The police on Thursday claimed to have cracked the murder case of a human rights activist at Tetultala in West Bengal's Howrah district in a parcel bomb blast in September, with the arrest of three people. Biswajit Majhi, Abhisekh Roy and Subhankar Das were arrested in connection with the case, police sources said.
The video also showed protests by locals at Garia, a suburb in the southern fringes of the city where the incident had allegedly taken place, who claimed that the bodies were those of novel coronavirus victims. West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar expressed concern over the video and sought a report regarding the incident from the state home secretary.
Several politicians from West Bengal are under scrutiny for sheltering Jammat-e-Islami and Chaatra Shibir operatives, says a Intelligence Bureau note to the Home Ministry. Vicky Nanjappa reports
Six persons, including a woman, were killed and 18 were injured in violence and CRPF firing in the fourth phase of the West Bengal panchayat elections on Monday. Polling in four districts saw a voter turnout of 25 per cent.
Rifles, guns and ammunition were seized from a Communist Party of India- Marxist party office, a health centre and other places in West Midnapore district on Tuesday, while the hand of a Trinamool Congress worker was chopped off allegedly by a CPI-M worker in Malda district.
A fresh gunbattle broke out between the Maoists and the joint forces in Salboni area on Saturday, while the police remained tightlipped over reports that top leader Kishenji was injured in Thursday's encounter at Hatiloth forest in West Midnapore district.
In a prize catch, the West Bengal police on Tuesday night arrested top Maoist leader Venkateswar Reddy, the suspected mastermind of the attack that killed 24 Eastern Frontier Rifles personnel in Silda in West Midnapore district. Additional Director General of Police of the Criminal Investigation Department Raj Kanojia said Reddy, alias Telugu Dipak, was arrested from Sarshuna on the southern fringes of the city.
The West Bengal government ordered an inquiry into the killing of All India Gorkha League president Madan Tamang in Darjeeling on Friday.
The inter-state anti-Naxal operation, along the Jharkhand-West Bengal border, has led to the unearthing of administrative and military units of the Naxals.The operation, which started on Tuesday evening, is a result of several months of planning, and is being lead by over 4,000 central forces including the Special Action Force of the Central Reserve Police Force, besides local police teams of the two states.
One person was killed and around 40 houses were ransacked during a clash between workers of the Trinamool Congress and the Communist Party of India-Marxist at Hatishala village under Chapra police station in Nadia district on Tuesday.
The Central Reserve Police Force and the police have seized a huge cache of arms from Maoist hideouts during a search operation in West Bengal's West Midnapore District.
central team has been sent to Belakoba station, where the blast occurred on the Haldibari-Siliguri passenger train on Monday, to ascertain which extremist group was behind the blast, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya said.
The body of slain Maoist leader Kishenji would be sent to his home at Peddapalli in Andhra Pradesh by the West Bengal government after conducting a postmortem in Kolkata.
A West Bengal minister on Tuesday hinted at the Maoist connection of Sankrail police officer-in-charge Atindranath Dutta, who had been kidnapped by the Naxalites on October 20 and was released after two days.
A Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporter attempted self-immolation in Darjeeling as the indefinite bandh by the GJM for a separate Gorkhaland entered the sixth day on Thursday, even as the West Bengal government said it would follow court orders strictly to maintain normalcy.
The owner of a rural chit fund firm, active in two south Bengal districts, died on Thursday in Hooghly district taking the ponzi scheme fiasco deaths in the state to 14.
Unabated political violence in West Bengal on Thursday came into sharp focus ahead of assembly polls with Governor M K Narayanan asking top state government officials to take immediate steps for maintaining law and order and the Election Commission deciding to send a team of senior police officers to assess the situation.
One person was killed and another 19 injured during a clash in Burdwan district between followers of the ruling Trinamool Congress and the Opposition Communist Party of India-Marxist, police said.
A 13-year-old girl committed suicide after being allegedly eve teased by some youths in West Bengal's Burdwan district, police said on Tuesday.
Before fleeing, the driver of the car scrapped the papers bearing the temporary registration number, both from the front and the rear end, in order to hide the identity of the vehicle owner, a senior officer of Kolkata Police said.
Four Forward Bloc supporters were killed and 12 policemen injured in Dinhata in Coochbehar district on Tuesday, when a district agitation programme organised by the party turned violent. The activists clashed with the police, which opened fire to quell the mob, after tear gas and baton charging proved ineffective.
At least 15 people were killed and 25 others injured when a minibus in which they were travelling overturned and fell into a pond at Dewanhat in Coochbehar district on Sunday.
Appearing before Justice Dipankar Dutta, Advocate General Balai Roy submitted that the investigating agency had exceeded the court's order by registering a police complaint and also sought rejection of the petition by Rizwanur's brother Ruqbanur. The CBI had said in its report that Rizwanur had committed suicide.
At least 12 pilgrims from Jharkhand were killed and 13 others injured when a truck hit a stranded bus on Durgapur Expressway at Chanditala in Hooghly district early Wednesday, the police said.
Murshidabad district alone accounted for 18 deaths, mostly in clashes and bomb attacks between Congress and CPI-M supporters on Sunday, with Chief Medical Officer (Health) M G Mondal confirming 11 deaths at Domkol, two each in Raninagar, Lalgola and Kandi and one at Sagardighi. District Magistrate Subir Bhadra said one CPI-M activist was killed and another injured in an armed clash with Congress workers at Rezinagar, 40 km off Berhampore, on Monday morning.
Ahead of Home Minister P Chidambaram's visit to Naxal-hit Lalgarh area of West Midnapore district on Sunday, Maoists exploded a landmine there on Saturday, injuring a Central Reserve Police Force personnel. The landmine was planted alongside a road in Bamal area and when the CRPF jawan stepped on it, the explosive went off, said the police. Security has been beefed up in Lalgarh, where Chidambaram is expected to visit on Sunday.
All shops and markets remained closed in both east and west Midnapur district.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Monday described Union Railway Minister Mamata Bannerjee's remark as "juvenile disorder" after she demanded his arrest saying there was violence in the state whenever he was away.
Released by Maoists after three days in captivity, police officer Atindranath Dutta hopes the West Bengal government would take steps to trace two police personnel, who were abducted by the ultras on July 30 and are still missing.
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.
The overall average till 5 pm was 84.24 per cent.
The Trinamool government, which cashed in on the Nandigram protests in West Bengal politics, has not yet given the Central Bureau of Investigation the sanction to prosecute five police officers involved in the 2007 police firing which killed 14 villagers.
A former Indian Police Services officer, who lodged an FIR against Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee and was considered very close to the Left Front government during Jyoti Basu's tenure, is among five former police officers contesting the West Bengal assembly polls on Trinamool Congress tickets.
Patrolling along the Bangladesh border was stepped up following the arrests.
Defending his decision to release 26 women "agitators" in exchange for a police officer abducted by Maoists, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee described it as an exception and warned the extremists that they would be taught a lesson in future.
West Bengal government-appointed interlocutors on asserted that the dialogue process with Maoists to restore peace in the 'junglemahal' area is on even as the offensive against the rebels continued.
The anti-Maoist joint operations by Central forces and police at restive Lalgarh in West Midnapore district were not a total success as no major arrest could be made or killings stopped, the West Bengal Government said on Thursday.
