New Delhi: Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has financially atoned for the mass deaths on Monday night, but maintained that the violence was a “big conspiracy” to defame her state.
Banerjee visited Bagtui village in Rampurhat Thursday where eight people, among them women and children, were burnt alive hours after the death of a local Trinamool strongman two days ago. They died when their houses were burnt down by a rampaging mob.
“The incident is condemnable and no one will be spared,” Banerjee said on Thursday.
Banerjee handed over Rs 5-lakh cheques to relatives of the dead, promised jobs and another Rs 2 lakh to rebuild their burnt homes.
She promised the police would probe the killings from “all angles”. She consoled the kin with comforting words, saying her heart had been crushed and that she never believed “something so barbaric could happen in modern Bengal”.
The BJP has accused Banerjee of using violence to muzzle Opposition voices and called the Rampurhat incident a retaliatory “mass murder”.
The state BJP has also formed a five-member fact-finding team, which will submit its report to party chief J.P. Nadda.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi mourned the deaths on Wednesday, assuring all possible help to the state government in rounding up the culprits. He told the people of Bengal never to forgive those who encouraged violence in the state.
The Calcutta High Court has ordered the police to protect witnesses, and summoned a central forensic team to gather evidence at the earliest.
A strident critic of the Bengal government, Governor Jagdeep Dhankar said Thursday: “This is a shameful event and an indelible scar on governance. The burning of people alive in a democracy in this manner is very painful. I appeal to the government to learn the lessons rather than offering defence.”
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