Tamluk, Sept. 19: Two CPM leaders accused in the 2007 Nandigram recapture case surrendered before a Haldia court this morning.

Bijan Roy and Ashok Bera, who are schoolteachers, were on the run for two years. They have been remanded in five days’ judicial custody.

Government lawyer Debdulal Giri said the CID inquiry into the case had found the two guilty of murdering seven persons, allegedly Trinamul supporters, and dumping their bodies.

In January this year, the CID had submitted a charge sheet against 88 CPM leaders and workers, of which 63 are absconding.

Three other accused in the case — former CPM MP Lakshman Seth, former CPM MLA Amiya Sahoo and district secretariat member Ashok Guria — were arrested from Mumbai on March 17.

Of the 12 persons arrested in the case, eight are in jail. Bera, Seth, Sahoo and Ajit Bar, a CPM gram panchayat member, have obtained bail at Calcutta High Court on July 17.

The additional chief judicial magistrate of Haldia had issued an order a month ago to confiscate the properties of the 63 CPM activists who are absconding.

According to CPM sources, Roy and Bera had surrendered because both of them feared they would lose their jobs as teachers for abstaining from workplace for a prolonged period.

A former zonal committee secretary, Bera taught at Godai Balbar Primary School, while Roy is a teacher at Haldia Brajanath Primary School. After the Lok Sabha polls, Roy had fled from Khejuri and took shelter at Haldia, taking a transfer to the school.

Police said that after the change in government last year, both Bera and Roy went into hiding and stopped coming to school.

Chairperson of East Midnapore primary education council Gopal Chandra Sahoo said that they had sent several show cause notices to the houses of Bera and Roy. “But they did not reply. We have now decided to dismiss them,” Sahoo said.

District secretary of the CPM Kanu Sahoo said that the Trinamul Congress government was implicating the CPM workers in false cases.