The CBI on Monday filed two chargesheets before a court in Birbhum’s Rampurhat on the March 21 Bogtui massacre in which 10 persons died and on the murder of local Trinamul leader Bhadu Sheikh that preceded it.

In its chargesheet on the carnage, the CBI has named 18 persons, including former Trinamul block president Anarul Hossain, for their complicity.

The central agency in its separate chargesheet on the murder of Bhadu, the deputy chief of Trinamul-run gram panchayat, named four persons who are absconding.

Sources said the CBI deemed the Bogtui carnage a “retaliation” to Bhadu’s murder.

The CBI submitted both the chargesheets before the court in sealed envelopes within three months of the incidents.

“The CBI today (Monday) filed the two separate chargesheets, one on the Bogtui carnage case and one on the Bhadu Sheikh murder case, at the court of additional chief judicial magistrate in Rampurhat,” said Surajit Sinha, the assistant public prosecutor in Rampurhat court.

On the night of March 21, several houses were set on fire by a group of around 70-80 people in retaliation to Bhadu’s murder earlier that evening. Eight persons, including a child, were found to have died of burns in the arson the following day. Apart from the eight, two others succumbed to burns some days later at a local hospital.

Bhadu was allegedly involved in running an extortion racket in the sand-and-stone quarry belt of Birbhum.

The carnage that followed his murder embarrassed Trinamul as families of those killed accused the ruling party’s block president Anarul Hossain of orchestrating the arson. To diffuse rising tensions in the area, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had visited Bogtui soon and directed police to arrest Anarul.

Sources said in its chargesheet the CBI had accused Anarul of abetment in the carnage. Sources said the central agency had said in its chargesheet that the murder of Bhadu was the fallout of a longstanding feud between two groups in Bogtui over the control of the extortion racket.

Although 29 persons had been arrested by the CBI in the Bogtui carnage case, the agency named 18 persons in the chargesheet on Monday. In its chargesheet on the carnage, the CBI has “discharged” the remaining 11 persons but kept the door open to include them in the case if their complicity is established during the course of further investigations.

“It is the first chargesheet and the agency may file a supplementary chargesheet during progress of the investigation. Among the 18 people named in the chargesheet there are two minors also,” said an advocate in Rampurhat court.

As the CBI is yet to arrest four persons accused in Bhadu’s murder, Rampurhat court on Monday issued a proclamation warrant against them. The four accused include a Trinamul gram panchayat member.