TMC’s Hossain ordered Birbhum killings, says CBI in charge sheet
KOLKATA: Anarul Hossain, former Rampurhat community block-1 unit president of Trinamool Congress (TMC), not only ordered the March 21 massacre at Bogtui village, which claimed 10 lives, but also supervised it while keeping the police away, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has said in its charge sheet filed on Monday at Rampurhat court in Bengal’s Birbhum district.
Lawyers and officers who went through the 1192-page charge sheet told HT that it cites eyewitness accounts, footage on security cameras at different locations and statements given by two of the three women who died of burn injuries at Rampurhat Medical College and Hospital.
Now in judicial custody, Hossain was arrested by the state police at chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s instructions when she visited Bogtui on March 24. He was charged with murder, arson, rioting with deadly weapons and criminal conspiracy before CBI took him into custody.
At 8.20pm on March 21, Bhadu Sheikh, deputy chief of the local TMC-controlled Barshal gram panchayat, was killed in a bomb attack near Bogtui intersection on NH-114A. This
triggered a retaliatory attack called by Hossain, said the charge sheet which also mentions that he was seen at the Rampurhat hospital after Sheikh was rushed there before being declared dead.
CBI has filed separate charge sheets in the two crimes but said that they are linked. The agency has named four persons as prime accused in Sheikh’s murder and 18 others, including Hossain, in the arson case.
CBI, which started probing the massacre and Sheikh’s killing following the Calcutta high court’s March 25 order, stated that Sheikh’s murder was the fallout of rivalry between him and his associates over dubious land deals, illegal businesses and share of extortion money.
Citing eyewitness accounts, the charge sheet says Hossain asked the mob to attack the homes of Sona Sheikh and Fatik Sheikh, specifically giving instructions to the mob that nobody should be spared, lawyers said.
A part of Bogtui village, barely 150 metres away from the bustling Rampurhat town, was attacked and the homes of Sona Sheikh and Fatik Sheikh were set on fire with petrol ferried from a local outlet in an e-rickshaw whose driver was held by CBI.
Six women, including an eight-year-old girl, Unmehani Khatun, were burnt alive that night. At 77, Nurnehar Bibi was the oldest victim. Among others were 21-year-old Marjina Khatun and her husband, Sajidur Rehman,
the only male victim of the carnage. At least eight more homes were attacked but the families managed to flee.
The charge sheet has raised serious questions about the role of the local police, saying they took more than an hour to reach Bogtui although the distance between the village and Rampurhat police station (less than 1 km) can be covered in a few minutes by car. Hossain has been accused of asking local police officers not to rush to Bogtui.
CBI officials and Birbhum district police did not comment on the charge sheet.
Samik Bhattacharya, chief spokesperson of BJP’s Bengal unit, said: “Anarul Hossain is too small a fry to plan and commit such a massacre on his own. It is obvious that he was carrying out the orders given by someone senior to him in the TMC hierarchy. Are we to believe that top district police officers did not rush to Bogtui just because Hossain asked them not to?”
TMC spokesperson Jay Prakash Majumdar countered the allegation. “If the CBI probe has put a full stop at Anarul, it means the agency did not find the involvement of anyone else. It was Mamata Banerjee who ordered Anarul’s arrest and held her responsible for the heinous crime. What she told yesterday has been echoed by CBI today,” he said.