Kolkata:
Bengal is in the grip of “mafia” led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and law and order has crashed in the state, a BJP “fact-finding team” has said on eight people burnt alive in Birbhum district last week.
The killings in village Bagtui were the result of “state-sponsored extortion, goonda tax, cut-money and tolabaji”, the BJP report said, referring to terms used for bribe-taking by Bengal’s ruling party leaders. The rivalry over bribe amounts between the beneficiaries was another reason, it said.
“Local residents have deserted their homes fearing a threat to their life and property,” the report claimed, recommending that bodies like the National Human Rights Commission and the National Commission for Women visit the village and set up confidence-building measures to bring the villagers back.
Six women and two children were locked in their homes and burnt alive by a mob on March 22 at village Bogtui near Rampurhat town, in what was believed to be retaliation after a local Trinamool Congress leader, Bhadu Sheikh, was killed in a crude bomb attack. Charred bodies were found a day later, mostly belonging to one family.
