Nandigram firing: CBI submits report to HC

Kolkata, Mar 22: The Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) today submitted to Calcutta High Court its preliminary investigation report on the Nandigram police firing that created a national outcry.

CBI lawyer Ranjan Roy submitted the report before the Division Bench headed by Chief Justice S S Nijjhar.

However, refusing to make public the CBI findings, the Division Bench said it would look into the report and the matter would be heard on March 26.

The Division Bench also extended for two more days the time for submission of an affidavit by the West Bengal government detailing the reasons for police firing at Nandigram on March 14 following an appeal by Advocate General Balai Roy.

Taking up the matter suo moto, the court had directed the CBI to conduct a detailed investigation on Nandigram firing and submit a comprehensive report following a public interest litigation filed shortly after the firing.

Advocate General Balai Roy and former state Law Minister Nisith Adhikari were also present before the Bench when the CBI report was placed before the court.

The Division Bench, at the same time, directed all the parties concerned willing to file public interest litigation to submit affidavits in support of their submissions instead of making just oral submissions.

One such submission on which the court directed to file affidavit was regarding allowing voluntary organisations to take medical aids to those injured in police firing.

Another submission was regarding the state government's decision to conduct parallel CID investigation alongside the CBI inquiry. The state Advocate General argued that in case of any police firing, there was a general rule that the state government conducts an executive investigation into the incident. He also appealed to the Division Bench so that copies of the CBI report and all the affidavits filed on this matter are made available to the state government.

UNI

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