Sainbari incident


The Sainbari incident occurred in 1970 in the house of Sain family in Bardhaman in West Bengal in India, where several innocent people were allegedly killed by members of the CPI, although it has not been proved so in court.

Incident

A newspaper report puts the date of the incident as 17 March 1970. The Sain brothers were members of a family with strong allegiance towards the Indian National Congress. Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India, had visited the house in the heart of Bardhaman town to console the bereaved. They were killed because they resisted the demand to switch sides. Two brothers, Pranab Sain and Moloy Sain were murdered and their mother Mriganayani was forced to eat rice and meat curry made with her sons' flesh and blood. A tutor Jiten Ray, who was present there at the time was also killed. Nabakumar Sain the eldest son of the family had his eyes gouged out and acid poured in his eyes in the attack, and he was killed a year later by beheading. It was alleged that the man who led the attack was Nirupam Sen, who has subsequently been a member of the CPI's central committee. CPI leader Benoy Konar and Anil Basu are also among the 83 accused in the FIR.
Swarnalata Jash, a sister of the Sains, has described the incident: "...flaming arrows were shot from all directions into our house… Then the attackers rushed into the burning house and speared Moloy and Pranab and then set them on fire… Even my elder brother was later beheaded." Later it appears that some documents of the case went missing from the Calcutta High Court.