Police pull-out starts; CBI to submit report to court tomorrow

Kolkata, Mar 20 (UNI) In keeping with its promise, the West Bengal government today started pulling out police from two areas of Nandigram, while the CBI team, probing the March 14 firing, will submit its primary report to Calcutta High Court tomorrow.

Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Ray told newspersons that police forces had been withdrawn from Sonachura and Adhikari para under the Nandigram panchayat area.

While police camping in Sonachura were sent to Bhangaberia to join the forces stationed there, those in Adhikaripara had been shifted to Tekhali on the Nandigram fringe, he said.

The remaining forces in Nandigram and other nearby villages, including Khejuri, would also be pulled out within the next 48 hours with a view to instilling faith of the local people in the state administration, the Home Secretary informed.

Mr Ray said the Government also submitted relevant documents to Calcutta High Court for making an affidavit on the March 14 police firing as directed by the judiciary earlier, while the Divisional Commissioner of Bardhaman, asked to conduct an Executive inquiry into the incident, had been directed submit the report in 45 days.

Admitting that the situation in Nandigram could not be normalised yet, Mr Ray said of the 18 villages under Nandigram Panchayat area, police entered only five.

To a question whether fresh violence could break out in the area, Mr Ray said, '' Such possibilities are always there. But the administration is alert against it. '' Meanwhile, CBI, conducting an inquiry into the incident following a court order, is expected to submit its preliminary report to Calcutta High Court detailing the findings it had stumbled upon since it started work in the area on Friday last.

The CBI sleuths seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition, stockpiled inside a brick kiln and apprehended ten people from the spot.

UNI