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.
The CBI team, consisting of around 20 members, went inside the house where charred bodies of seven people were found.
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.
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.
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.
West Bengal Chief Minister West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee visited Bogtui village in the state's Birbhum district where eight members of a family were burnt alive after a local Trinamool Congress leader was killed.
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.
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.
Ganguly broke down as she raised the issue of eight people, including two children, being burnt to death in Bogtui village in Birbhum, saying to be born in West Bengal is not a crime.
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.
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.
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".
The high court had earlier ordered a CBI investigation into the killings of the nine people at Bogtui village.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The seven have been booked on the charge of murder and other sections of the Indian Penal Code, a CID 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.
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.
Eight people -- all women and children -- were beaten and burnt alive by a mob on Tuesday.
The stampede occurred when people rushed towards the dais in an attempt to get blankets.
The meeting was held for over an hour, he said.
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.
Eight persons died in the early hours of Tuesday after their houses caught fire at Rampurhat in Birbhum district, police said.
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.
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.
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.
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'
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances