West Bengal: CBI summons police officer, seeks details of Sonarpur ‘violence’ case

This is the second time that sleuths of the central probe agency have summoned a police officer to its Kolkata office as part of its investigation into ‘post-poll violence’ cases. Earlier, officers, who probed the death of another BJP worker Abhijit Sarkar, were summoned by the CBI.

On Thursday, CBI teams visited Sonarpur, Duttapukur, Rampurhat and Nandigram as part of the probe into other alleged case of post-poll violence. The sleuths spoke to family members of victims of alleged attacks, as well as the police at these places.

The agency, on Thursday, also filed three more FIRs as part of its ongoing investigation. While one of these pertains to an alleged incident in Nadia, two more relate to cases in the North 24 Parganas. The number of FIRs filed by the CBI currently stands at 34.

A team of five CBI officers also visited Presidency Jail on Thursday to question five persons who were arrested in connection with the alleged killing of Abhijit Sarkar in Narkeldanga and are behind bars.

The agency had filed a petition in Sealdah court seeking permission to examine these persons in jail. According to CBI sources, Abhijit’s family members claimed that he was dragged out of his house and beaten to death by a mob of nearly 100 people. The sleuths now want to speak to the arrested persons to know the exact sequence of events and who all were a part of the crime.

The CBI has already moved the high court seeking detailed post-mortem and DNA reports of Abhijit, who was killed allegedly by Trinamool Congress supporters on May 2, the day the election results were declared.

Meanwhile, two persons accused of killing a BJP worker Dharma Mondal in Chapra of Nadia district, surrendered before a local court on Thursday. The two were identified as Kalu Sheikh, a Trinamool member of Hridaypur Gram Panchayat and Vibhas Biswas, a temporary worker of the same panchayat. As they surrendered on Wednesday, the Krishnanagar Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court remanded them in custody for 14 days.

The high court had on August 19 ordered a CBI probe into alleged cases of murder, rape and attempted rape after the poll results were announced in West Bengal and set up a special investigation team under the supervision of a retired Supreme Court judge to probe other criminal cases.

While the CBI took up the probe as mandated by the high court, the Trinamool claimed the Centre was using agencies under its control to target the party and its leaders.