Bengal Violence Accused's Wife Accuses CBI Of Theft Days After His Death

The widow of Lalon Sheikh, the main accused in Bogtui massacre who died in CBI custody, has lodged a police complaint alleging theft by the central probe body, an official of the investigating agency said on Monday.

In her complaint filed at Rampurhat police station in Birbhum district on Sunday, Reshma Bibi alleged that "valuable articles" were missing from their residence after CBI sleuths visited it with Sheikh, the police said.

The residence was sealed thereafter, the police said.

"Reshma Bibi is accusing the CBI as the house was locked by CBI and the articles went missing after it," an official of the state CID, which is investigating Sheikh's death, said.

This is her second police complaint in a week. In her first complaint on December 13 Reshma Bibi had alleged that CBI officers during their visit to Bogtui village in the course of the High Court-ordered investigation had threatened to kill her husband.

She had blamed the central probe agency for his death.

When contacted a CBI senior officer rubbished the allegations and said that it has a detailed list of what was inside the house when it was sealed by it.

"The allegations made by Reshma Bibi are baseless. We have a list of the materials inside Sheikh's house, which we had sealed last week. We will show it to the police in case it is needed," he told PTI.

Sheikh was found dead inside the washroom of the temporary office of CBI at Rampurhat on December 12. The CID acting on the first FIR lodged by Reshma Bibi, has sought from CBI a detailed report on Sheikh's custodial death, the CID official said.

"We have sought a report from the CBI about Sheikh's death in its custody. We have also sought the video footage from it," he said.

The CID has asked CBI to provide details on the number of officers and sequence of events on the day when Sheikh was found hanging inside in CBI's temporary office.

It visited the guest house twice and collected evidence from it. The officer said that CID will be tallying the CBI report with its findings.

CBI sleuths spoke to Sheikh's wife, daughter and others who were present at his Bogtui residence when they had taken him there on December 12 afternoon, hours before his body was found inside the washroom.

The central probe agency has emptied the guest house at Rampurhat and shifted all its officers following a demonstration by Sheikh's family members and other villagers of Bogtui who demanded the arrest of the investigators of the central agency.

In the massacre, which took place after the murder of Trinamool Congress leader Bhadu Sheikh on March 21 this year, 10 people had died of burn injuries.

Sheikh was seen in a CCTV footage throwing bombs aiming at residences in Bogtui on March 21 night after the murder of TMC leader Bhadu Sheikh, CBI had claimed.

The central probe agency complying to a Calcutta High Court order had registered a case on March 25 against 22 accused and arrested over 15 people for their alleged involvement in the massacre.

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