CID books 7 CBI officers in Bogtui accused's death in custody

Kolkata: West Bengal CID Wednesday booked seven CBI officers including the DIG and an SP in connection with its probe into the custodial death of Lalan Shiekh, a prime accused in the Bogtui violence, an official said.

The seven have been booked on the charge of murder and other sections of the Indian Penal Code, a CID official said.

The state agency booked them following a police complaint lodged by Sheikh's wife, Reshma Bibi on Tuesday and sent to the additional chief judicial magistrate of Rampurhat district court.

An FIR has been lodged in the case under IPC sections 302 (murder), 323 (causing hurt) and 325 (assault and grievous hurt, 120b (criminal conspiracy), 448 (trespass), 509 (defamation of a woman and various other serious charges), he added.

The violence at Bogtui in Birbhum district took place on March 21, 2022 in the aftermath of the death of Trinamool Congress leader Bhadu Sheikh near his residence. Several houses were set on fire and ten people were reportedly killed.

When contacted, a CBI official claimed that a couple of the seven officers named by CID in its FIR are not linked to the ongoing probe into the Bogtui massacre.

"It is quite mysterious why some of our senior officers who had no link with the Bogtui violence case have been named in the FIR lodged by the CID. We are trying to challenge this move legally," the CBI officer told PTI. Reshma Bibi in her complaint alleged that the CBI officials had threatened to kill Sheikh when they took him to their residence at Bogtui village as part of the investigation. She also claimed that she was beaten by CBI officers during that visit.

The woman has also claimed that CBI officers called her up on Monday afternoon and informed her about Sheikh's death. During it they had threatened to kill her and her son, Reshma Bibi asserted.

The CBI rebuffed the allegations as "baseless and bereft of truth".

Meanwhile, a senior CBI officer reached the city on Tuesday night and held back-to-back meetings at the agency's office here to determine its next move against the state CID's FIR, a source in it said.

Sheikh was found hanging on Monday in the washroom of a temporary CBI office set up in a guest house at Rampurhat in West Bengal's Birbhum district. CBI officials claimed that he died by suicide and his family alleged that his death was due to torture in custody.

The district police too is probing the death.