Skeleton case: Charge-sheet filed against CPI-M leader

The Criminal Investigation Department on Friday filed a charge-sheet at a Midnapore court against 58 accused, including jailed former West Bengal minister Sushanta Ghosh, in the Garbeta skeleton recovery case.

Besides the former minister, his ex-personal secretary Debashis Pyne has also been named in the charge-sheet, which was filed within three months of Ghosh's arrest.

Sixteen of the 58 persons named in the charge-sheet are already behind bars, while the remaining including Communist Party of India - Marxist's Paschimbanga Krishak Sabha general secretary Tarun Roy, Keshpur zonal secretary Imtiaz Ali and the former minister's brother Prashanta Ghosh have not been arrested so far, the CID informed.

The probe agency prayed to the CJM court to issue arrest warrants against all the 42 and order attachment of their properties if they fail to turn up.

Seven skeletons were dug up from a pit near Ghosh's ancestral house in Benachapra village in West Midnapore district on June 22. The ex-minister was arrested by the CID on August 11.

The Trinamool Congress had alleged that the bodies of its supporters, who died in a firing incident on September 22, 2002 at Piyasala village, were carted away by CPI-M cadre and buried at the spot.

Ghosh had been arrested on the charge of complicity in the murders of Trinamool workers.