KOLKATA: A controversy erupted on Friday after the BJP released a purported audio clip in which West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is heard telling the Trinamool Congress nominee of Sitalkuchi to hold rallies with bodies of the four persons killed in CISF firing during polling on April 10.
The TMC described the audio clip as bogus claiming such a conversation never took place.
PTI could not independently verify the authenticity of the audio clip which was released on the eve of the fifth phase of the polls.
Releasing excerpts of the telephonic conversation between Banerjee and Partha Pratim Ray, the TMC candidate of the Sitalkuchi seat, the BJP s IT Cell chief Amit Malviya claimed that the chief minister is trying to instigate riots by asking her party leaders to take out rallies with bodies .
CID takes over probe in Cooch Behar CISF firing that killed 4
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Last Updated: Apr 16, 2021, 01:45 PM IST
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Synopsis
Investigators will visit booth number 126/5 in Jorpatki in Sitalkuchi assembly constituency where CISF personnel had opened fire after they allegedly came under attack from a group of villagers.
PTI
West Bengal CID Friday took over the case of killing of four people in firing by the CISF during polling in Cooch Behar district on April 10, a senior government official said. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has been constituted to conduct the probe in the incident which happened during the fourth phase of polling at Sitalkuchi.
MATHABHANGA: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday met families of those killed in CISF firing during the fourth phase of assembly elections and asserted that her government will launch a probe to bring the culprits to book.
Banerjee lamented that she could not meet the next of kin of the deceased earlier owing to a 72-hour ban on entry of political leaders in Cooch Behar, where four people were gunned down by CISF personnel, who fired in self defence , on April 10. Our inquiry will track everyone responsible for the cold-blooded killing and ensure they are punished as per law, she said.
by Jaideep Mazumdar - Apr 12, 2021 01:08 PM
Kishanganj Police Station SHO Ashwini Kumar.
Snapshot
The Goalpokhar (West Bengal) police initially resisted the registration of a murder case and wanted to register a case of unnatural death. An unnatural death case would have allowed the perpetrators of the crime to go scot free.
It was only after senior Bihar Police officers intervened that the Bengal Police agreed to register a murder case and carry out raids at Pantapara to nab the accused.
At a time when media and political attention remained focused on the deaths of four young men in firing by Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel at Sitalkuchi in north Bengalâs Cooch Behar district, the lynching of a police officer from Bihar in the Muslim-majority Uttar Dinajpur district of Bengal in the wee hours of Saturday (10 April) received scant attention.
The Election Commission has given a clean chit to the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) jawans and said that they had to open fire in self-defence.