A CBI official in Sonachura on Friday. Picture by Amit Datta

Sonachura (Nandigram), March 16: The CBI probing Wednesday’s police firing may dig up all the places where villagers claim bodies have been secretly buried.

Officers of the central investigating agency told residents of Bhangabhera and Sonachura to come up with specific information and show them the suspected spots.

“Apart from finding out what exactly happened on March 14 and whether there was a real situation that forced the police to open fire, we will also pursue the allegation of a section of villagers that the actual death toll was much more than what the administration declared officially,” said B.B. Mishra, the joint director of the CBI (east).

Mishra said residents of Sonachura have alleged that more than 100 people had died and thousands are missing. The East Midnapore district magistrate had said on Wednesday that the toll was 14.

“We told them to hand over to us a list of the families whose members are missing. If they come up with specific information, we will definitely investigate it,” he said.

A 15-member CBI team and 10 personnel from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) today examined the stretch from Bhangabhera bridge to Sonachura bazaar and collected samples of bloodstains on the road.

The sleuths also went around the one-km paddy field on the roadside and gathered evidence, including a rubber bullet.

“We examined the bullet with a bore mark of 7.32 mm. This is not used by police and must have belonged to one of the villagers. After examining it thoroughly, we came to know the bullet had been loaded in a firearm and the user pulled the trigger thrice to open fire. But it did not work and the bullet was probably thrown away,” Mishra said.

Last night, the teams had visited the Tamluk sub-divisional hospital and spoken to people injured in the firing and examined their wounds. They also collected documents, photocopies of the victims’ post-mortem reports, discharge certificates and surgery reports of the injured, and went through the register of the hospital morgue.