Bengal government orders CID probe into Baghmundi incident

Kolkata, Aug 02 (UNI) The West Bengal government today ordered a CID inquiry into the death of three Jadavpur University students, who went for trekking in Purulia district last week.

Announcing the decision to order a high level inquiry into the unfortunate incident following requests from the families of one of the deceased, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee told newsmen here that the government would conduct a thorough enquiry into the entire incident.

Though clarifying that the probe would be "something bigger" than an ordinary probe by the Criminal Investigation Department(CID), the Chief Minister said he had already sought a transcript of the police interrogation of the two surviving male members of the team - Bappaditya Chatterjee and Kaushik Sarkhel.

Meanwhile, State Inspector General of Police, Law and Order, Raj Kanojia reterating the Chief Minister's views said the probe would go much deeper into the incident to trace whether there was any inter-state or inter-district connection behind it.

" We are also trying to trace the lost camera and some other items of the deceased members of the trekking team, " Mr Kanoria said adding preliminary reports of the probe was expected to be submitted within the next ten days.

He said the family members of Arundhuti Saha, after tracing her decomposed body yesterday, had lodged a formal complaint with the Baghmundi police station against Bappaditya and Kaushik and demanded a thorough probe into the whole incident, which was still shrouded in mystery.

The five M Pharma Jadavpur University students, including two girls, Swati Das and Arundhuti Ghosh- had gone for trekking to Banghmundi area of Ayodhya Hills in Purulia district on July 28 and were allegedly washed away by flash floods at Domcal canal while resting on a small hillock.

Later, the bodies of three members - Swati Das, Subhankar Saha and Arundhati Ghosh - were found, while Bappaditya and Kaushik had a miraculous escape.

While the bodies of Swati and Subhankar were found the next day (July 29), the highly decomposed body of Arundhuti was found only yesterday after three days of extensive search by police, the villagers and a team of Jadavpur University trekking unit.

Meanwhile, Jadavpur University Registrar Rajat Banerjee in a letter to Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Roy and state police chief Amiya Bhusan Vora had also demanded a thorough investigation into the incident.

" Right now, we do not know how this happened. We want the truth to come out, " Banerjee said when contacted.

Claiming that the university authority was totally ignorant about their trip to Banghmundi, Mr Banerjee said they informed the police immediately after receiving the information about they went missing following the flashfloods in the canal.

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