KOLKATA: The Birbhum police arrested three more people in connection with the murder of TMC leader and deputy pradhan Bhadu Sheikh of Bogtui village in West Bengal's Rampurhat on Tuesday night.
Acting on a tip-off, the police apprehended Sanju Sheikh, Shera Sheikh and Raja Sheikh from Malda, Jhargram and Rampurhat border, respectively.
They were produced before a Rampurhat court that remanded them to 10 days of police custody. The fresh apprehensions took the total number of arrests to four.
“The men were spotted on CCTV cameras leaving the village after the attack,” said an officer of Rampurhat police station.
The accused, on their way to the court, however claimed they were innocent and that they were being framed. They didn’t name anyone but a relative of the arrested person Sanju Sheikh claimed he was nowhere near the scene of crime on that night.
Following the death of Bhadu Sheikh, at least eight houses in the village were torched by alleged supporters of the leader in retaliation and nine people were killed and one of the victims is still in hospital.
At least 22 people were named in that FIR.
A CBI team that is probing into the genocide under instruction from the high court marched into multiple households in and around Bogtui speaking to relatives and family members of those named in the FIR. CBI sleuths also visited houses of Jahangir Sheikh and Ali Hossein, the two men named in the FIR in connection with the genocide who are yet to be arrested.
Another team of CBI questioned multiple officers of Rampurhat police station at their temporary camp office at Panthasree PHE guest house throughout the day.
On Wednesday, family members of the genocide victims returned to the village. Mihilal Sheikh, who lost his mother, daughter and wife in the retaliation fire and Banirul Sheikh, who lost his wife, daughter and son-in-law, put up at a relative's house at Kumadda village, adjacent to Bogtui. Both of them had been living at their in-law’s place in Gopaljal village next to Bataspur in Sainthia since the incident.
The house at Kumadda belonged to a family member of Seklal Sheikh, whose wife Najima – another fire victim -- died on Monday after fighting for life for a week at the hospital.
“This village is our home and we had to get back and face the harsh reality that our loved ones are no longer with us. But I have faith in the police administration as well as the CBI and I believe justice will be served to us,” said Mihilal Sheikh.
