Lagatar24 Desk
Kolkata, March 23: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday has ordered the West Bengal administration to give a status report on the arson incident that killed eight people in Rampurhat, Birbhum district, within 24 hours.
The court ordered that CCTV cameras be installed in the area. It was announced that a team from Delhi’s Central Forensic Science Laboratory will be despatched to gather samples from the arson scene.
“Let no evidence be destroyed. The district court and the state DGP will have to ensure the safety of every villager and witnesses. If any post-mortem is pending, it will have to be videographed,” the bench said.
Notably, the high court had taken suo motu notice of the violence in Birbhum, which was thought to be the result of the murder of a Trinamool Congress panchayat official (TMC). At 2 p.m., Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj convened a bench to hear the case.
In the early hours of Tuesday, unknown miscreants set fire to their homes in Rampurhat hamlet, killing at least eight people. The incident occurred shortly after the alleged murder of TMC panchayat leader Bhadu Pradhan, who had been attacked the day before with homemade bombs.
The West Bengal government has formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to look into the incident, which will be led by Additional Director General (CID) Gyanwant Singh. In connection with the case, 22 persons have been arrested thus far.
