Mamata Banerjee alleges police is suppressing Kolkata fire death toll

Amid conflicting claims today over the number of persons who went missing in the fire at the heritage building here, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today accused West Bengal government of suppressing the death toll in the incident.
     
"Government was suppressing the actual deaths starting from Nandigram to Stephen Court incident", Banerjee told reporters but did not specify the number of deaths in the fire.

Banerjee, the railway minister who had yesterday visited the spot after hearing the news of the fire and asked the railway to send their fire tenders, accident relief team and medical teams to Stephen Court, alleged police tried to suppress the truth on the death toll yesterday.

"I was stunned to find that police misled me about the casualty figure. They told me last evening that there only two bodies and none was trapped inside. It turned out that there were more charred bodies inside the affected blocks", she said.

She said "it was only because of a senior fire brigade officer who has been transferred for his alleged links with Trinamool Congress that more bodies could be recovered last night. He played an inspiring role in entering the main fire-affected place and rescuing the trapped".