Birbhum violence: Calcutta HC says "truth must come out", asks state to produce status report

New Delhi, Mar 23: The Calcutta High Court, which registered a suo moto case in the incident of Rampurhat, Birbhum district, said "truth must come out" while asking the West Bengal police to produce the status report tomorrow.

Hearing the case, a bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj asked the state government to protect witnesses while issuing directions to protect the crime scene by installing cameras in the presence of the District Judge.

"Cameras with DVRs with sufficient memories to be installed covering all angles of the crime scene with continuous recording," the bench said. It also has ordered a forensic team from Delhi to collect evidence immediately from the spot.

Eight people, including three women and two children, were charred to death as nearly a dozen houses were set ablaze in a village in West Bengal's Birbhum district early Tuesday in a suspected fallout of the murder of a ruling TMC panchayat official.

Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said that people involved in the incident will not be spared. "The government is ours, we are concerned about people in our state. We would never want anyone to suffer. The Birbhum, Rampurhat incident is unfortunate. I have immediately dismissed the OC, SDPO. I will go to Rampurhat tomorrow," she said.

Stating that such incidents have occurred in the BJP-ruled states, she added, "Such kinds of incidents have happened in Gujarat and Rajasthan too. I am not justifying the incident in Rampurhat. We will take action in a fair manner."

All eight were buried late Tuesday night in the presence of district officials. Sources said the adults among the dead had been identified as Mina Bibi, Noornihar Bibi, Rupali Bibi, Bani Sheikh, Mihir Sheikh and Neklal Sheik. Altogether 11 people have been arrested so far, and the West Bengal government has constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Additional Director General (CID) Gyanwant Singh to probe the incident, state police chief Manoj Malviya said.

Najira Bibi, one of those who managed to survive, told PTI from her hospital bed at Rampurhat, "We were sleeping and suddenly heard the sound of bombs ... the miscreants set our houses on fire. I managed to escape but don't know what happened to others in the family."

West Bengal Governor condemned the incident and tweeted, "Horrifying violence and arson orgy #Rampurhat #Birbhum indicates state is in grip of violence culture and lawlessness. Already eight lives lost. [sic]"

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee responded to his comments by saying, "Your statements have political overtones supporting other political parties to browbeat the Bengal government".

Meanwhile, a 9-member delegation of BJP MPs including the party's national vice president Dilip Ghosh, Locket Chatterjee and Arjun Singh met Home Minister Amit Shah in the national capital and sought his intervention to punish the perpetrators of the incident.