Markers of arson fresh, Bogtui village fears violence yet to come
Tanmay Chatterjee
BOGTUI: There is a deathly silence that surrounds the two-storey home. The walls still carry the markers of arson, streaks of crumbling black ash smattering the original green.there is evidence of lives that were once lived here. Earthen pots, a ladder, and cow dung cakes. And there is evidence of a carnage that destroyed those lives.
The silence is broken by a black dog that emerges from the rubble, barking angrily at this reporter’s intrusion. “Sanju Sheikh’s family picked him up from the streets. The dog thinks he is guarding the property,” says Anwara Bibi, a homemaker next door.
The home must be guarded because there are no people to protect anymore. Exactly two months ago, in one of Bengal’s most gruesome massacres, 10 people were burnt alive in Birbhum district’s Bogtui village, on the outskirts of Rampurhat town. Those that lived have not yet mustered the courage to return. At 8.20pm on March 21, 39-year-old Bhadu Sheikh, the deputy chief of the local Trinamool Congress (Tmc)-controlled Barshal gram panchayat was killed in a bomb attack near the Bogtui intersection on NH-114A. In the hours that followed, Bogtui village, 200 metres away, went up in flames. Angry mobs attacked the homes of Sanju Sheikh and Fatik Sheikh, setting them ablaze. Eight women, a man and an eight-year-old girl, Unmehani Khatun were burnt alive (three of them succumbed to their injuries in hospital). At least eight more homes were attacked but the families inside managed to flee.
All 10 victims belonged to the families of three brothers, Mihilal Sheikh (39), Sheikhlal Sheikh (46) and Banirul Sheikh (48), to whom Sanju Sheikh was a nephew; Fatik Sheikh is a cousin.
Already reeling under allegations of post poll political violence, chief minister Mamata Banerjee visited Bogtui on March 24, announced that the victims were TMC supporters, granted ₹5 lakh to the kin of the every deceased, another ₹2 lakh to repair each home, and provided jobs for Mihilal Sheikh and Bhadu Sheikh’s widow Tabila Bibi. But the next day, in a blow to the state government, the Calcutta high court ordered a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation, the second such massacre the agency is investigating in West Bengal. In the first, the Chhoto Angaria massacre in East Midnapore in January 2001, seven reported TMC supporters were burnt alive in a hut, allegedly by cadres of the then ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist).
The families that survived
Sitting on a rickety chair,
Mihilal Sheikh recalls the sequence of events he has been able to put together that left seven of his family dead. Sheikh is now in the village of Kumardihi, living in a relative’s home 500 metres away from Bogtui, under police protection. On that fateful night, Sheikh was returning when he saw it being attacked, fled through the paddy fields, and survived to tell the tale.
The first home to be attacked was his, but the family saw the approaching mob and took shelter in the home of Sanju Sheikh, the son of Mihilal’s sister Rupali Bibi. Here, their luck ran out. “Bhadu Sheikh’s men killed my eight-year-old daughter Unmehani Khatun, my mother Nurnehar Bibi, my wife Roshanara Bibi, elder sister Rupali Bibi, sister-inlaw Jahanara Bibi, my brother Banirul’s daughter Margina Khatun and Banirul’s son-in-law Sajidur Rehman,” said Sheikh.
Sheikhlal Sheikh, who is also living in Kumardihi, told HT that his wife Najma Bibi, sister-in-law Atahara Bibi and Fatik Sheikh’s wife Mina Bibi died in hospital from the burn injuries they suffered when Fatik Sheikh’s home was set ablaze, 25 metres away from that of Sanju Sheikh. “Violence is a part of life in Bogtui in recent years but I never imagined that it would claim members of my family,” he said.
For the past two months Mihilal and Sheikhlal Sheikh have not set foot in Bogtui although the family has been provided with protection — two police constables armed with semi-automatic rifles. “It is risky to return. Bombs were hurled at my home four months ago as well although nobody was hurt,” said Sheikh.
Sheikh has been appointed as a Group D staff at the Rampurhat sub-divisional office where Bhadu Sheikh’s widow has also been given work by the government. “I have not gone to office in a month because of the mourning. I have told the district administration that I should not be asked to sit in the same office with Bhadu’s widow.”
The families are reticent about what led to the retaliatory attack but there are clues offered by direction of investigations that tell a story of a deeply embedded rivalry. Sheikh’s nephew Palash Sheikh, who is absconding, is one of the prime suspects in Bhadu Sheikh’s murder according to the Birbhum district police’s first information report.
Palash Sheikh has been in hiding ever since he was named as a suspect when Bhadu Sheikh’s brother, Babar Sheikh, was shot dead last year. “Palash is innocent. He has been framed by TMC leaders and Bhadu’s main henchman, Lalan Sheikh. Sanju Sheikh has been named as a suspect too although he was in Mayureshwar during Bhadu’s murder. This is not new for us. Sanju’s father was forced to leave the village one year ago. Sanju’s mother, who died in the attack, had been living alone,” Sheikh said.
Sheikh alleges that he too was accused of murder and “framed by Bhadu” in 2021. “I got bail from court. Bhadu considered us as his enemy because we opposed his extortion. We wanted the TMC to be clean but Bhadu reigned with fear. I raised this with TMC leaders often, but nothing was ever done,” he said.
The unease in Bogtui
Two months on, the village, located around 230km to the north-west of Kolkata, is quiet. The burnt homes are cordoned off and there are armed policemen guarding six outposts. Locals do not trust the uneasy calm. “The peace you see could be temporary. Bogtui has a history of violence and we live in fear. Attacks and counter-attacks may resume once the police pickets are removed,” said Bogtui resident Kajal Sheikh.
The violence, residents say in hushed tones, stemmed from disputes between rival factions of the TMC over dubious land deals and extortion from illegal sand mining. “The enmity between the families of Bhadu Sheikh, Mihilal Sheikh, Sanju Sheikh and Fatik Sheikh evolved years ago. Some of them are not even from here, and came from other parts of Birbhum. Sanju’s father Sona Sheikh, for example, arrived in Bogtui around 20 years ago. The influx of outsiders had an effect on the natural resources of the village, of which land is considered the most valuable. The enmity turned violent although all these families owe their allegiance to the TMC,” a local trader, who did not want to be named, said.
In Rampurhat, a liquor store owner said that after the TMC came to power in 2011, the area was dominated by a man called Angur Sheikh. “Angur was not scared of the law. But after Bhadu became a panchayat member, local people approached him and he drove Angur away. Violence has always been a part of our life. Angur’s brother Rajesh Sheikh, who was equally notorious, was murdered after Bhadu became a panchayat member in 2013. Two years ago, a man named Bapi, who was linked to Bhadu, was killed,” he said.
A local TMC leader said, “It is no secret in Birbhum that money is collected every day from trucks that carry sand and stones. If the trucks are loaded according to government regulation, the drivers pay ₹1000. If the vehicles are overloaded, the amount can go up to ₹2000.”
The scale of money involved means the real question that faces Bogtui is who will replace Bhadu Sheikh in the village hierarchy. “Till now I have not heard of anyone emerging to replace Bhadu. We fear that Angur may return from hibernation. That would be disastrous for us. Bhadu never bothered small traders,” said a shop owner at Rampurhat.
Nagendra Nath Tripathi, superintendent of police, Birbhum, however said that there is no need for fear. “We will ensure that another Bhadu Sheikh is not born. Palash and Angur will never take his place. The police camps will be there for six months or, even a year. Senior police officers from the district headquarters are visiting Bogtui twice every week,” said Tripathi.
Local politics
On the face of it, Bhadu’s death and the subsequent killing have not dealt the TMC an immediate political blow. In the 2018 panchayat polls, the TMC won all 16 seats in the Barshal gram panchayat board.
But more consequentially, the incident has raised broader questions about political violence in Birbhum, and in particular, the role of Anubrata Mandal, the infamous Birbhum district president . “No crime takes place in Birbhum without Mondal’s knowledge. Nobody will believe that he was not aware of a such a massacre taking place,” said BJP’S Birbhum unit president Dhruba Saha.
A month before these killings, Mandal was the only district leader to be included in the TMC’S national working committee. When the violence erupted, Mandal was under the spotlight again, and the day after, denied all allegations of infighting and retaliatory attacks. At 11am, he first said, “The villagers died when their houses caught fire because of an electrical short circuit in a television. There was no violence last night.”
Quickly changing tack an hour later, Mandal said, “It is possible that some people attacked those houses. How can I say for sure? I live in Bolpur town, far away from Rampurhat.”
Differences between Mandal and the TMC’S Rampurhat legislator Asish Banerjee have also surfaced after the killings. Anarul Hossain, the TMC Rampurhat-1 community block unit president arrested for the massacre, was not removed from his post in 2021 because of a written request Asish Banerjee made to Mandal in June last year.
A district TMC leader said the allegation against Hossain was inactivity before the March-april assembly polls, resulting in the Bharatiya Janata Party increasing its vote share in numerous polling booths in the Rampurhat constituency although the ruling party retained 10 of Birbhum’s 11 seats. “There were complaints against Anarul. But I allowed him to continue because the request came from a veteran like Asish Banerjee. He wanted Anarul to stay till the panchayat polls in 2023,” Mandal said in March.
Banerjee, a former lecturer at Rampurhat College who won the Rampurhat assembly seat for the fifth time last year and is now the deputy speaker of the Bengal legislative assembly, said seeking Hossain’s continuance was purely an organisational decision. “Many leaders are not happy with the fact that Mandal’s name is figuring in too many controversies. Only Mamata Banerjee will decide how to deal with this,” a Bengal minster said, requesting anonymity.
Party insiders also said that these tensions have meant that little has been seen of Mandal in Birbhum and that worker’s meetings have been poorly attended in his absence. MLA from Bolpur and minister of MSME and textiles, Chandranath Sinha however dismissed this and said, “All meetings are being held under Mandal’s instructions. No work has been hampered.”
Thus far, the division bench of Calcutta high court chief justice Prakash Srivastava and justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj, which ordered the CBI probe into the massacre and Bhadu Sheikh’s murder, has so far received two status reports in sealed envelopes. CBI has taken into custody 22 people held by the state police and interrogated them, thereafter arresting six more people.
Back in Bogtui, the investigation has little to no relevance. Most believe that there is violence to come, and wait with baited breath for what they think is inevitable. In the rubble of Sanju Sheikh’s home, the dog too waits for his family to come home.