By IANS,
Kolkata : Five more people have been arrested in West Bengal for the killing of two Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leaders last month, taking the total number of people arrested in the case to 11, police said Monday.
Pradip Tah, who earlier represented Burdwan North in the assembly, and the CPI-M’s district committee member Kamal Gayen were lynched in a clash in Dewandighi in Burdwan district on Feb 22. While the Left Front blamed ruling Trinamool Congress, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee linked the deaths to infighting within the CPI-M.
“Following intelligence inputs, five people suspected to be involved in the killing of the two leaders in Burdwan last month were arrested late Sunday from Mirzapur in the district,” Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Deputy Inspector General (Operations) K. Jayaraman told IANS.
The latest arrests takes the number of people arrested to 11 – while four people were nabbed Feb 22 itself, two others were arrested March 11.
A day after the incident Feb 22, four accused, allegedly Trinamool Congress supporters, were sent to judicial custody after the prosecution did not press for their police custody, attracting much criticism from all quarters.
Later, a public suit was filed in the Calcutta High Court demanding a high level probe by an impartial agency into the matter.
The court March 2 expressed its displeasure over the state of investigation and asked the CID to probe the matter. The Mamata Banerjee-led state government also received flak for the delayed submission of autopsy reports of the deceased.