Kaliganj blast: Forensic team collects evidence, deceased's mother declines money offered by TMC MLA

Kolkata: Forensic experts on Wednesday collected samples from Kaliganj in West Bengal's Nadia district, where a minor girl was killed in a bomb explosion during a celebratory procession linked to bypoll results there on June 23, police said.

Sabina Yasmin, the mother of the 13-year-old victim, refused to accept the money offered by a ruling Trinamool Congress MLA and set a 24-hour deadline for the police to nab those culprits who are yet to be arrested.

Police said a team of forensic experts went to Malandi village and collected some "white substance", "hair clips with blood stains", and other articles from the spot where Tamanna Khatun was killed.

"These articles will be sent for chemical examinations. We will not be able to say anything before the results are out," one of the members of the forensic team said.

Meanwhile, Yasmin denied money offered to her by Trinamool Congress' Debra MLA Humayun Kabir, who went to Kaliganj on Wednesday afternoon.

She later alleged that the TMC leader tried to gag her in exchange for money in a closed envelope.

"I do not want any money. I want the culprits to be arrested. He (Kabir) came here to give me money in an envelope. He also gave me a phone number. I know that he was trying to seal my lips. I asked him where the culprits who threw the bomb were. If the MLA was a woman, I would have ripped her hair off," the mother said.

Five people have been arrested so far in connection with the crime committed allegedly by TMC-sheltered miscreants who hurled socket bombs targeting houses of CPI(M) supporters during their celebration rally of the by-polls which the Trinamool Congress won comprehensively.

Yasmin also set a 24-hour deadline for the police to nab the other culprits before moving to court to seek justice or demand a CBI probe into her daughter's murder.

Kabir told reporters that he was in Kaliganj not as a politician but an ordinary citizen.

"I think everyone should raise their voice against such bomb attacks," the TMC legislator said.

BJP MLA and leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari lauded the victim's mother for not accepting the money from the TMC legislator.

"She is a brave woman. I salute her for not accepting the money and asking the TMC MLA to leave," Adhikari said.

ISF MLA Nausad Siddique also paid a visit to the family.

Police said that besides the arrests, they were continuing raids to nab the others involvement in the incident.

In the FIR, 24 people were named for offences such as rioting, voluntarily causing hurt, and culpable homicide among others, an officer said.

Police had previously said that Tamanna's death might have been caused by the splinter wounds she sustained from the socket bomb that was hurled at her during a clash between two groups in the locality over a long-standing feud.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had also directed the police to take strict legal action against the culprits.