Thaindian News

Kolkata, March 14 (IANS) Eight men were arrested in West Bengal’s West Midnapore district for allegedly killing nine people in Netai area Jan 7, a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) official said Monday.

“Earlier on Sunday, we arrested four men who fired at people on Jan 7. After interrogating them, we rounded up four others early Monday. All were accused in the Netai killing case,” Superintendent of the CBI’s Special Crime Branch Arun Bothra said.

Nine people, including four women, were killed and 28 others were injured in the clashes triggered by assailants allegedly backed by the ruling Marxists near the Maoist stronghold of Lalgarh in the district. Lalgarh is around 150 km from here.

The officer said the CBI got a tip-off that the accused had taken shelter in Goaltore area of the district. The arrested men were identified as Pintu Rai, Raju Rai, Jaganath Rai and Gandibaran Rai.

“During interrogation, the four accused revealed the whereabouts of the others and raids were conducted in villages adjacent to Lalgarh in search of them,” said a senior CBI officer.

“Raids were conducted with the help of the local police and four companies of Central Police Reserve Force (CRPF) personnel and six persons were picked up from Murar village. Among them, four were arrested and two others are still under verification,” he said.

“They have been identified as Roop Aahir, Niranjan Kotal, Banamali Duley and Lab Duley. All of them aged between 25-30 years have admitted to the crime,” said the officer.

“The four accused who were arrested Sunday were presented before a court in Jhargram Monday and have been remanded to judicial custody till March 18 while the four others would be produced before the court Tuesday,” Bothra told IANS over phone.

Local residents, however, claimed that all the arrested men were supporters of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M). They were hired armed cadre who camped in party leader Rathin Dandapat’s house in Netai village, they alleged.

“We are not asking the accused about their political affiliation, so we cannot confirm whether they were CPI-M men or not. We are interrogating them to know the whereabouts of the other accused,” said Bothra.

Earlier, the state police’s Criminal Investigation Department had arrested CPI-M local committee members Abani Singh and Aswani Chalak for complicity in the firing.

The CID also accused the CPI-M’s local committee secretary Joydeb Giri, zonal committee member Fullora Mondal and owner of the house Rathin Dandapat, but none of them was arrested.

Later, following the directives of the Calcutta High Court, the CID handed over the investigation into the Netai case to the CBI Feb 22.