West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee to visit violence-hit Birbhum today; BJP demands central probe

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will visit the violence-hit Birbhum district where at least eight people, including two children, were charred to death and several houses were set ablaze in a possible fallout of a village panchayat deputy chief’s murder.

The TMC chief had said o Wednesday that she would visit Bogtui village, where the shocking incident took place. She also assured that strict action would be taken against the perpetrators of violence in the Birbhum district.

Describing the incident as "unfortunate", she said, "It was an attempt by the BJP, Left and the Congress to malign our government. Strict action will be taken against all those responsible for the Birbhum incident, irrespective of their (political) colour.” "We have already removed the (police) Officer-in-Charge, the SDPO and other senior officers. The DGP is in the district since yesterday," she underlined.

Referring to past incidents of violence in other states, she said that her party MPs were stopped at the airport in Assam, where they had gone to protest NRC implementation, and entry wasn't allowed in UP's Hathras and Unnao (where gang-rape cases occurred), too, but her government would never do the same.

"This is Bengal, not UP. We allowed everyone to visit Birbhum. "Not justifying the Birbhum killings, but such incidents are more frequent in UP, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan," she said.

Banerjee also claimed that such incidents are results of a conspiracy hatched to divert attention from issues of concern, such as price hike of petrol and other commodities.

In a veiled attack on Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, Banerjee said, "There is one 'Laat saheb' (lordly person) sitting here and describing Bengal as the worst state hurling abuses at the state government."

Banerjee and Dhankhar had been engaged in a heated exchange over the Birbhum incident since Tuesday. 

Meanwhile, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) delegation on Wednesday visited the Bogtui village in Birbhum district to take stock of the situation there. The delegation was led by the Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Suvendu Adhikari, BJP MP Arjun Singh was also present in the delegation.

"It is a very unfortunate incident. No words are sufficient to condemn it. Calcutta High Court has given directions to Central Forensics. We demand an NIA or CBI probe. SIT is a wing of the state government. Chief Minister is trying to save the government. President`s rule is the only way to save our Bengal," Adhikari said.