Bengal Explosion Fallout: Police Officials Suspended Following Mamata Banerjee's Criticism

Within hours of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee challenging the role of the IC in the aftermath of Sunday's explosion in an illegal fireworks facility in North 24-Parganas that left nine people dead, the inspector-in-charge of Duttapukur police station and another police official were suspended.

In the early hours of Monday morning, a shrub next to a pond in the Mojpole-Paschimpara hamlet of Duttapukur yielded the partially burned unidentifiable corpse of the ninth victim.

"What was the chief inspector doing? Was he dozing off? She inquired at a cabinet meeting, according to many witnesses who were there.

Although it wasn't on the list of issues to be discussed in advance, Mamata brought up the Duttapukur bomb at the meeting, the sources said.

On the Trinamul Chhatra Parishad's founding day, Mamata stated some police were covering up unlawful activity, but not all of them, while speaking to a student gathering on Mayo Road in Calcutta. "Police are turning a blind eye to certain people's criminal acts. But not all of them," she said.

"I'm not going to talk about what's going on at a few police stations. I've established an anti-corruption cell, similar to an anti-ragging group. I'm monitoring everyone and everything that is going on.

Although the explosion was not mentioned, numerous prominent Trinamul officials said that it was clear the party leader was expressing her annoyance with the Bengal home minister after Sunday's explosion in Duttapukur, around 35 kilometers north of Calcutta.

The chief minister called a meeting at her Kalighat house on Sunday night with Vineet Goyal, the commissioner of the Calcutta police, and Manoj Malaviya, the state's director general of police.

On Monday morning, a group of top police officials traveled to Mojpole-Paschimpara village in Duttapukur under the direction of Siddhi Nath Gupta, assistant director general of police (South Bengal).

Before leading a raid that resulted in the arrest of Shafiqul Islam, allegedly one of the partners of the illegal fireworks factory and a close aide of Keramat Sheikh and Jerat (not Jiyat as previously reported), who had rented a room in Samsur Sheikh's house, where the explosion occurred, Gupta met with Bhaskar Mukherjee, the superintendent of police of the Barsat police division, and other senior officers. Samsur was one of the victims.

In May, after the Egra explosion, a search was conducted in Duttapukur to locate illegal fireworks. Keramat was then detained there. After receiving bond, he resumed his work, according to the police. He and Jirat are both missing.

At least two stockyards of explosives purportedly owned by Sheikh Shahir Husain and Abdul Mahid, both of whom are said to be local Trinamul supporters, were raided during the early hours of Monday morning.

"Police raids didn't start until after the explosion claimed numerous lives. We attempted to get the police's attention on several times in the past, but in vain, said a resident of the Mojpole-Paschimpara hamlet who asked to remain anonymous. If you pay the police fines, everything becomes lawful here, the villager said.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) sent a two-person team to the explosion site. In two different instances, the BJP asked the Calcutta High Court for the CBI and NIA to conduct investigations into the occurrence. Senior state police officers and forensic specialists were interviewed by the NIA personnel.

Both petitions claimed that since the accused were associated with the Trinamul Congress, the state police were attempting to hide their activities. On Tuesday, these petitions are set to be heard by the high court division bench presided over by Chief Justice T. S. Sivagnanam.