BJP report on Rampurhat mentions “mafia” led by Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress

West Bengal is in the grip of “mafia” led by state chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, and the law and order of the state has crashed, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) “fact-finding team” has said on the March 21 massacre in Bengal’s Birbhum district.

On March 21, eight persons — mostly women and children from the same family — were killed in Birbhum district’s Bogtui village of Rampurhat, when around ten houses were torched by miscreants. The ninth person, Najma Bibi, died on Monday. The incident is alleged to be a retaliation after a local Trinamool leader Bhadu Sheikh was killed in a crude bomb attack. Fire brigade personnel found the charred bodies from a house.

The killings of Bogtui were the result of “state-sponsored extortion, goonda tax, cut-money and tolabaji,” the BJP’s report said, adding that the rivalry over bribe amounts between those benefitting from these was another reason that led to the killings. “Local residents have deserted their homes fearing threat to their life and property,” the report mentioned. It has recommended that bodies like the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and National Commission for Women (NCW) must visit the village for confidence-building measures that can help in getting the villagers back to their own homes which they have been forced to flee.

The BJP team has also said that Banerjee decided to visit Bogtui only after the BJP team had reached Kolkata, and due to her “forced visit”, the BJP team was stopped by Trinamool “goons” that wanted to assault the team. “Not even a single officer or constable” was seen and no one came to rescue the fact-finding team of the BJP “when they were attacked” despite attempts to contact senior police officers, it was mentioned.

Meanwhile, Banerjee has “condemned” the report, saying it was attempting to interfere into the probe and influence it. The Rampurhat massacre is being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) under direction of the Calcutta High Court. “It is absolute misuse of power,” Banerjee said today.