CBI registers nine FIRs related to post-poll violence in Bengal

New Delhi, August 26

After deciding to carry out zone-wise investigation of post-poll violence in West Bengal, the CBI today said it had registered nine FIRs and began a probe into the alleged heinous crimes, including rapes and murders.

Team visits house of slain BJP worker

• A team of CBI officials, headed by joint director Anurag, on Thursday visited the home of slain BJP worker Abhijit Sarkar and held talks with his family members, as part of its investigation into cases of post-poll violence in the state, sources in the agency said.
• Sarkar was strangled to death in the city by suspected TMC activists on May 2, shortly after the Assembly elections results were declared. PTI

TMC delegation meets EC officials

• A Trinamool Congress delegation on Thursday met the EC officials here with a request to hold bypolls at the earliest for the seven vacant Assembly seats in WB.
• The Dinhata and Santipur Assembly seats fell vacant after BJP leaders Nisith Pramanik and Jagannath Sarkar resigned as MLAs to retain their Parliament memberships.
• Similarly, elections could not be held in Samserganj and Jangipur seats in Murshidabad due to the death of candidates. The Kharda seat fell vacant in North 24-Parganas district after TMC candidate Kajal Sinha passed away. PTI

Earlier, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), while taking up the probe following the Calcutta High Court’s order, had constituted four special teams, each headed by a Joint Director-level officer and moved their units from Kolkata to crime scenes across the state, officials in the agency said.

More FIRs are under the process of registration with some of them being handed over by the state government, they added. A five-judge Bench of the Calcutta High Court had entrusted the CBI the task to investigate alleged rapes and murders after the Assembly polls in West Bengal earlier this year.

The CBI has dispatched a team of officers comprising four joint directors, as many DIGs and 16 Superintendents of Police, and other investigators drawn from across the country, who would remain stationed in the four zones, the officials said. The Calcutta High Court had also ordered the constitution of an SIT of state police officers to probe all other cases. The SIT includes Suman Bala Sahoo, Soumen Mitra and Ranveer Kumar, all IPS officers of the West Bengal cadre. — TNS