Journalism of Courage
The West Bengal Police have booked seven Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials under charges of murder and criminal conspiracy, among others, in the Lalan Sheikh death case based on a complaint lodged by his wife. Lalan, the prime accused in the Bogtui arson case, was found dead in CBI custody in the Rampurhat area of Birbhum district on Monday, eight days after his arrest.
The FIR registered by the Rampurhat police on Tuesday names CBI officials Vilas Mhadgut, Bhaskar Mondal, Rahul, Sushata Bhattacharya and Swarup Dey, who the police say were investigating Trinamool Congress leader Bhadu Sheikh’s murder in a bomb attack and the Bogtui carnage. The FIR also mentions the Superintendent of Police, CBI, the Deputy Inspector General, CBI, and others as accused.
As per the FIR (a copy of which is with Express), all the officials have been booked under sections 448 (house trespass), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt), 302 (murder), 385 (extortion), 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 427 (mischief causing damage) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
On Wednesday, after Lalan’s body was handed over to his family after the autopsy, they took it to the CBI camp office and protested there, demanding justice.
The case was lodged on the basis of a three-page complaint letter written in Bengali by Reshma Bibi, Lalan’s wife, where she alleged that CBI officials threatened him with murder during a team visit with him to Bogtui and also sought bribes.
“My husband was murdered by CBI officials…he did not kill himself. The officials who came with him to our home had asked for Rs 50 lakh to clear his name. CBI officials and CRPF personnel had been physically violent with me too, they beat me up with rods,” she said.
In her complaint demanding a probe against the CBI by the state agency Crime Investigation Department, Bibi accused them of having tried, through “utmost mental torture”, to make Sheikh name “some big people” in the case. Bibi said that Sheikh had told her about it and alleged that they put him in “immense physical torture” to extract the hard disk from him. The CBI has dismissed her allegations.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had condemned the incident on Tuesday. “I condemn the incident. If the CBI is so smart how did he die in their custody? We will raise the issue. A case has already been lodged based on the complaint filed by his wife,” she said on Tuesday during a press conference in Meghalaya.
CBI sources told The Indian Express that at the time of the incident, two investigating officers (IOs), one each for the Bogtui case and the Bhadu Sheikh murder case, had gone to the court and only a CRPF security personnel was at the spot. According to the CBI, Sheikh’s death is a suicide case and they have informed all authorities, including the National Human Rights Commission. According to the CBI, a judicial inquiry will be carried out in the case as per the norm. Agency sources said the CBI was not conducting a departmental probe into the incident as it might be considered as interfering with the judicial inquiry.
“We have arrested more than 20 people in this (Bogtui) case. CBI investigates cases professionally, that is the reason why our conviction rate is 75 per cent, higher than any agency. Whatever the allegations are, they must stand in the court of law,” a CBI source said.
At least 10 people were killed in the arson and violence that followed the murder of local TMC leader Bhadu Sheikh on March 21. The CBI is probing the case on the orders of the Calcutta High Court.
