Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday expressed regret at the massacre in the Birbhum village of Bogtui and said the perpetrators would not be spared.
Eight people were killed in Bogtui, part of Rampurhat subdivision, on Tuesday amid suggestions this was retaliation for the murder of local Trinamul leader Bhadu Sheikh on Monday night.
“What happened in Rampurhat is unfortunate.... No one will be spared,” the chief minister said at a programme to include 8 lakh more widows under the state government’s widow pension scheme.
She said her government was taking all the necessary steps and that she would visit Rampurhat on Thursday.
“Yesterday, after the incident, I made more than 50 calls to Rampurhat in a few hours.... We have removed the OC (officer in charge of the local police station) and the SDPO (sub-divisional police officer),” Mamata said. “I have also asked for the removal of those in IB (state police’s intelligence branch). I sent (minister) Firhad (Hakim) to the spot immediately. I shall go tomorrow.”
Sources in the administration said Mamata’s comments indicated that she wanted the administration to be seen as proactive.
“She has removed the police officers who were supposed to act as soon as Bhadu Sheikh was killed. Now she has asked for the removal of intelligence officers, which is an admission of an intelligence failure. It shows she is in no mood to spare anybody,” a senior bureaucrat said.
Mamata appeared to be trying to explain why such an incident can happen despite government seriousness about law and order. “A total of 11 crore people live in the state. The incident happened at midnight in a remote village. We don’t want such incidents in Bengal,” the chief minister said.
Mamata said such incidents were rare in Bengal but common in BJP-ruled states.
“Such incidents don’t happen here. These happen in their dozens in UP. An incident happened and there will be action. We don’t consider (political) colour while initiating action,” she said.
Sources in Nabanna said Mamata was upset with the BJP’s efforts to use what she saw as a one-off incident to claim a deterioration in law and order in Bengal.
Mamata suggested a conspiracy. “This is our government. Would we want the incident to happen? Who wants such incidents? Those who are not in power,” she said.
“They know they won’t be able to say that people are in distress in Bengal. They won’t be able to say people are starving in Bengal.... They won’t be able to say children are not getting midday meals here. So they are trying to create trouble through such incidents.”
They are trying to “divert attention from the rise in the prices of petrol and diesel”, the chief minister added.
Mamata said her government did not stop anybody from visiting sites of atrocities but Trinamul teams were prevented from visiting Hathras and Unnao (which witnessed brutal rapes and murders) in Uttar Pradesh and sites of violence in Assam.
“We sent teams of Trinamul MPs to Hathras, Unnao and Assam but they were not allowed to visit the places. We don’t prevent anybody in Bengal. We allow everybody here,” she said.
Sources in the state administration said the chief minister had given clear instructions that nobody should be prevented from visiting Bogtui.
“She does not want to give the Opposition a chance to claim that her government has something to hide. If all parties are allowed to visit Bogtui, none will be able to claim there is no democracy in Bengal,” a bureaucrat said.
