Mamata, BJP delegation set to visit Bogtui

Kolkata, March 24 : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will on Thursday visit the trouble-torn Bogtui village in Birbhum district, where six women and two children were burnt to death by a mob, amid criticism from the opposition that her government was ‘suppressing” the issue and “downplaying” the toll. A five-member BJP team would also go to the village under Rampurhat block – around 200 kms from Kolkata – to make an on-the-spot study of the situation. The dead included seven members of the same family. The mob fury happened hours after a TMC leader Badhu Sheikh was murdered after dentified miscreants hurled a crude bomb on him around 8 30 pm on Monday. The underfire chief minister, who also holds the home portfolio, on Wednesday averred all the culprits in the incident would be p shed, but alleged a “deep-rooted conspiracy to malign” her government. She claimed that rival parties – BJP, Congress and CPI(M) – had hatched the conspiracy. “Strict action will be taken against all those responsible for the Birbhum incident, irrespective of their (political) colour,” she had said. A five-member BJP delegation comprising Rajya Sabha member and former UP DGP Brajalal, Lok Sabha member and former Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh, RS member and former Karnataka IPS officer K C Rammurthy, BJP’s state president Sukanta Majumder(MP) and party spokesman and former IPS Bharati Ghosh would visit the scene of the crime on Thursday. Mazumder has demanded the chief minister’s resignation for her failure to protect poor people, that too from the minority comm ty. He rebuffed the chief minister’s accusation of conspiracy and said it was an “abject failure’ on the part of the government which failed to percent an ‘orchestrated attacks on the common people. Majumder said Banerjee herself holds the police portfolio and must bear the blame as the law enforcers remained “mute spectators” amid the violence in which some 8-10 houses were burnt by spraying fuel. Meanwhile, following a Calcutta High court directive the CCTV cameras were being set up at Bogtui village. A team of forensic experts from Delhi is also expected to visit there to collect samples from the site. PC SSP