CBI Joint Director visits affected areas in Nandigram

Nandigram, Dec 5 (UNI) CBI Joint Director Arun Kumar visited several affected areas of Nandigram today as part of the probe into the March 14 police firing, while a 18-member team of Left Front Legislators also went round the strife-torn areas to take stock of the situation.

The CBI Joint Director visited Bhangabera and Tekhali, from where the police had opened fire, talked to the local people and met members of the families of those killed in the police firing.

He also talked to the district officials and met units of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camping at the Nandigram College ground.

The investigating officials, accompanying him, talked to the villagers of Southakhali, Jalpai and Sonachura, the worst-hit areas during the period of violence.

At least 14 people were killed and more than a 100 injured in police firing on March 14, when a mob confronted a police contingent that tried to make a forced entry in the area which remained inaccesible to outsiders because of a militant agitation by the local people against setting up of a special economic zone.

An 18-member team of Left Front Legislators, led by Mohammad Masih, also visited Nandigram. The team will submit a report to Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and West Bengal Legislative Assembly Speaker Hasim Abdul Halim.

The group comprised three women Legislators and representatives from Left Front allies - the Forward Bloc (FB), Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and Communist Party of India (CPI) - who had been vocal against the violence in Nandigram.

Meanwhile, Sub-divisional Judicial Magistrate, Haldia, Arpan Chatterjee today remanded BUPC leader Khokan Shit, arrested from Kolkata yesterday, to 14-day judicial custody.

UNI