Birbhum violence: Eyewitness claims fire brigade personnel waited for 10 hours to recover bodies

New Delhi [India], March 26 : The fire brigade personnel waited for 10 hours to enter the burned houses in Birbhum to recover charred bodies due to intense heat, said an eyewitness of the Birbhum violence in West Bengal.
Due to immense heat, it was not possible to get into those burnt houses at that time, but the search operation for injured and affected persons continued till 7 am the next morning, as per the complainant.
On Friday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took over the probe into the Birbhum violence case following a Calcutta High Court order.
The complainant is a sub-inspector posted in Ramphurat police station in Birbhum and also the first responder to the incident.
The FIR copy reads that at around 9.35 pm on March 21, he received information from sub-inspector Ramesh Saha of Rampurhat police station (duty officer), that some houses of Bogtui village have caught fire and are burning.
"I along with my accompanying officers and force rushed to Bogtui village to work out the information. At about 10.05 pm, we reached Bogtui village, which is located at a distance of about one km from Bogtui Morh on NH-60, to work out the information and found that eight houses and some straw heaps and caught devastative fire and were burning fiercely," he mentioned in the FIR.
"I immediately called duty officer SI Ramesh Saha and asked him to promptly inform fire brigade personnel to rush to the spot to extinguish the fire. After that, myself along with my son tried my level best to douse the fire with the help of local people by pouring water by buckets but failed to do so as the fire was so devastative. At about 10.25 pm, the fire brigade personnel of Rampurhat Fire and Emergency Services arrived at the spot with two fire tenders and started fire fighting operations," he said.
During fire fighting operations, four persons were found having burn injuries. They were immediately shifted to Rampurhat Medical College and Hospital with the help of local people and their relatives. The fire was anyhow brought under control and at about 2 am the fire brigade personnel left the spot after the fire was more or less doused, FIR reads.
"Due to immense heat, it was not possible to get into those burnt houses at that time. However, search process for injured and affected persons was continued on March 22 (next day) morning at about 07.10 am, the fire brigade personnel again arrived at the village and joined in our search operations," as per complainant statement in the FIR.
The FIR further reads that most of the houses were completely gutted and also were found to have been ransacked. While the search operation was in progress, seven burnt dead bodies were recovered from the houses. One injured person rescued from the house succumbed to her serious burn injuries during treatment at a hospital.
All the bodies were charred to death beyond recognition. The dead bodies were immediately shifted to Rampurhat College and Hospital for holding post-mortem examination, he said in the FIR.
A total of eight people were burnt to death in the Rampurhat area of West Bengal's Birbhum on Tuesday after a mob allegedly set houses on fire following the killing of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Bhadu Sheikh.