CID starts probe into Baghmundi incident

Purulia, Aug 3 (UNI) A three-member CID team, led by Superintendent of Police (CID) Sanjay Singh, arrived here today to investigate into the Baghmundi incident in which three Jadavpore University students died.

The team went to Bagmundi and visited Dowary canal and inspected the site, where the bodies of Swati Das, Subhankar Saha and Arundhati Ghosh were found.

They would carry out inspection tomorrow as well.

The team met Superintendent of Police of Purulia district Ashok Kumar Prasad and other police officials.

The other duo Bappaditya Chatterjee and Kausik Sorkhel are likely to be brought to Purulia by the CID for interrogation.

The state government ordered a CID inquiry yesterday into the death of three Jadavpur University students, who went for trekking in Purulia district last week.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee had said the government would conduct a thorough inquiry 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 had said he had already sought a transcript of the police interrogation of the two surviving male members of the team.

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

He had said preliminary reports of the probe was expected to be submitted within the next ten days.

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

The five M.Pharma Jadavpur University students, including two girls, Swati Das and Arundhuti Ghosh, went for trekking to Banghmundi area of Ayodhya Hills in Purulia district on July 28 and were allegedly washed away by flash floods at Dowary 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 on Tuesday after three days of extensive search by police, the villagers and a team of Jadavpur University trekking unit.

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.

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