Police ignored distress calls while Bogtui was burning: CBI charge sheet

Kolkata, June 21

The police was negligent as violence swept the Bogtui village in West Bengal's Birbhum district, leaving 10 people dead, as per the charge sheet submitted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the carnage.

In the 1,193-page charge sheet submitted at a lower court at Rampurhat in Birbhum on Monday, the central agency virtually said that the local police ignored desperate calls from the villagers while Bogtui was burning on March 21.

On March 21 this year, Trinamool Congress heavyweight and panchayat deputy chief Vadu Sekh was killed in broad daylight. Following that, major tension and violence broke out at Bogtui, when several houses were set on fire. Eight persons including women and children were killed on the spot. Later one more woman died in hospital taking the death toll in the massacre to 10 (including Vadu Sekh).

Highly-placed CBI source said that 17 persons, including prime accused Anarul Hossain, have been named in the charge sheet. "In course of our investigation, we have talked to a number of local villagers and many of them said that despite repeated calls to local police stations while the carnage was going on, no one from the local police appeared at the spot on the night of March 21," said a CBI official on condition of anonymity.

In the charge sheet, the CBI has also mentioned findings from the CCTV footage collected from various places near the place of occurrence. In the charge sheet, it has also been mentioned that Hossain came to Rampurhat Hospital, along with his close aides at around 9 p.m on March 21, where the body of bullet-hit Vadu Sekh was lying. Probably, that is when and where the planning for the Bogtui carnage was made, the CBI has said in the charge sheet.

It has also been mentioned that the rioters first locked the main exits before setting the houses on fire to ensure that no one can escape.

The CBI had on Monday also submitted a separate charge sheet in the Vadu Sekh's murder case where they named four persons.