"Hope State Takes Strict Action": PM Narendra Modi Flags Bengal Violence

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today spoke on the violence in Bengal's Birbhum, expressing his condolences and assuring all help to the state government "to book the culprits". "I hope the state government takes strict action against the culprits, and those who encourage such criminals should not be forgiven too," he said, referring to the violence that cost eight lives and set off a massive political storm.

The Union Home Ministry has sought a report on the killings, which the state BJP alleges is retaliatory violence by Trinamool Congress after one of its local leaders was murdered.  The BJP is also sending a fact-finding team to the area.

The Bengal BJP has sought President's Rule in the state, alleging that the murders are the latest episode in the state's long list of political violence.

A mob had set several houses on fire in Bogtui village on the outskirts of Rampurhat town on Tuesday night. The charred bodies of seven people, two of them children, were recovered from a house. An eighth person died on way to the hospital.

The visuals of recovery of the charred bodies from the damaged house have sparked outrage.

Many on social media slammed the Mamata Banerjee government which won a third straight term with a landslide victory last year in face of a power-packed campaign by the BJP featuring PM Modi and all key leaders.

Ms Banerjee has said the state will take action in a "fair manner". "Such kinds of incidents have happened in Gujarat and Rajasthan too," she said today, adding that she was "not justifying the incident in Rampurhat".

"The government is ours. We are concerned about people in our state. We would never want anyone to suffer... I have immediately dismissed the OC, SDPO (officer in-charge, sub-divisional police officer) of Rampurhat. I will go to Rampurhat tomorrow," the Chief Minister had added.