The CBI on Thursday submitted its preliminary report of the Bogtui carnage case in response to an order on March 25 by a division bench of Calcutta High Court headed by Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava.

The report was placed before the division bench in a sealed cover. “For the sake of fair investigation, the copy of the report is unlikely to be made public,” an advocate of Calcutta High Court said.

Nine persons died in the aftermath of the massacre at Bogtui on March 21 night when goons raided the village after Trinamul leader Bhadu Sheikh was murdered.

The division bench of Calcutta High Court initiated a suo motu proceedings and subsequently ordered a CBI probe into the killings on March 25. At least six parties, including the CPM, BJP and the Congress, were allowed by the bench to be added as parties to the case.

The bench asked the CBI to submit its preliminary report before it on April 7.

The court on Thursday fixed April 27 for the next date of hearing the case. It would decide then if copies of the CBI report would be handed over to the parties of the case.

Bhadu murder case

A lawyer appearing for the CBI in the Bogtui massacre case, informed the division bench headed by Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava that his client was ready to accept the Bhadu Sheikh murder case. Opposing it, lawyers for the state said police probe was on. The court has not yet decided on the matter.

“Many of the relevant documents may have been hushed up in the meantime, still the CBI is ready to take up the responsibility of probe into the murder case,” the lawyer for the CBI said.

Lawyers appearing for the state in the matter said: “The state police is already conducting a probe into the case. Several arrests have also been made in connection with the case. Why any other investigating agency should be handed over the probe at this stage?”

Almost all the added parties of the suo motu proceedings, however, demanded a CBI probe into the Bhadu murder case.