Kolkata: As the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team probing the Birbhum violence case made further progress on Sunday by arresting another accused, the officials are trying to trace the “higher-level political and administrative links” of the accused as well as the victims. This is the fifth arrest by the CBI in this case.
The probe agency has arrested Samir Sheikh — the father-in-law of one of the prime accused, Lalan Sheikh who is still absconding. The CBI officials will present him at the court on Monday.
Nine persons were killed on March 21 in a gruesome carnage at Bogtui village in Rampurhat of West Bengal’s Birbhum district. Those killed included local Trinamool Congress village panchayat chief, Vadu Sheikh.
CBI sources told IANS that preliminary findings through questioning of various persons including the arrested ones hint towards multiple angles of the causes behind the massacre in which the victims as well as accused were close associates of the Trinamool Congress.
One angle is the rivalry over control and share of the illegal sand mining business, a menace that is rampant in different pockets of Birbhum district where Bogtui is located. The second angle is that the victims and accused had affiliations to two top district-level top leaders of Birbhum district, whose cold war on various issues is a much talked about affair in the entire district for a long time.
The CBI sleuths feel that these two angles had made the grassroots level rivalry even more bitter that ultimately led to the gruesome massacre.
Following successive orders of the Calcutta High Court, the CB| is currently conducting two parallel investigation — first on the carnage that claimed nine lives, and second on the assassination of Vadu Sheikh.
A few days ago, the CBI had arrested four other persons, namely Bappa Sheikh, Sabu Sheikh, Sirajul Islam and Taj Mohammad.
