TMC internal rivalry and money disputes led to Rampurhat terror

‘Bhadhu Sheikh was the head of the sand and stone syndicate that used to run from this area. It is this syndicated control by him that created enemies for Bhadhu Shiekh within his own party’.

The death of at least10 people, including two children, who were burnt to death, in Rampurhat block of Birbhum district in West Bengal was the result of a longstanding internal rivalry between two factions of Trinamool Congress (TMC) over sharing of earnings from the syndicate business.

According to sources and eyewitnesses, who were present at Bagtui village, Barshal gram panchayat, 250 km from state capital Kolkata,where the incident took place, on the fateful night of 21 March at around 10.30 pm, a group of 80 to 100 men assembled in the village shouting slogans to avenge the death of TMC’S panchayatup-pradhaan(deputy head)

Bhadhu Sheikh who was murdered just hours before. Sheikh was elected at the said post for village number 8 in the 2018 Panchayat elections.

Eyewitnesses, who spoke to The Sunday Guardian said that the men and women of the village were under fear since their Panchayat uppradhaan was murdered allegedly by a faction of TMC leaders over the division of shares or “cut money” that Bhadhu Sheikh used to collect through his syndicate.

As per census 2011, Bagtui is a Muslim dominated village spread across 144 hectares with a population of 5,100. The village has approximately 150 houses. The nearest town, Rampurhat is 2 km away. The local police station is around 2.5 km or 10 minutes away from the village, where the carnage took place. The Tarapith temple is less than 15 minutes away from the village.

“The area was tense and we had all assembled at the village since up-pradhaan saheb was just murdered some hours back. Soon at around 10:30 pm, we saw hundreds of men, who all were from the nearby areas, running towards the settlement with sticks, bombs and shouting slogans. It was then that we asked all the females and children to get inside the house and keep the house bolted from inside. Suddenly, they (Bhadhu Sheikh’s people) started accusing us of killing Sheikh and started to ransack our houses. In between all this, some houses were set on fire and one of the houses happened to be where five women and two children were sent to stay to avoid the chaotic situation outside,” an