High court to pass order on PIL seeking CBI probe on Tuesday

Kolkata, Jan 14 (PTI) The Calcutta High Court willpass an order on Tuesday on a PIL seeking a CBI probe on therecent Lalgarh massacre that claimed the lives of sevenvillagers.

The hearing of the case, which also sought steps todismantle armed camps in Jangalmahal, was concluded today.

A division bench of Chief Justice J N Patel andJustice Asim Kumar Roy, after hearing the submissions of allthe parties including petitioner Bar Association of CalcuttaHigh Court, the West Bengal and the Central governments,directed that an interim order be passed at 2 p.m. on Tuesday.

Appearing for the petitioners, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy inhis submission questioned the neutrality of a state agencylike the CID, which is at present investigating the January 7incident, and said a CBI probe into the incident was necessaryfor the truth to come out.

Claiming that ruling CPI-M cadres fired on innocentvillagers, he said that the state agency would not be able tobring out the truth.

On the alleged existence of armed camps injangalmahal, he submitted that for the time being they woulddismantle the camps themselves and come back at an appropriatetime.

Opposing the prayer, Advocate General Balai Roysubmitted that a proper investigation was being conducted bythe CID and the state government would make all efforts toensure that the actual persons involved in the gruesome actare punished in accordance with law.

The lawyer for another petitioner claimed that atleast 90 armed camps existed in the state, of which 45 were inWest Midnapore district.

Seven persons died when alleged CPI-M cadres fired ata crowd from the house of an alleged CPI-M activist RathinDandapat, which doubles up as an armed camp of the Marxistparty, at Netai village in the Lalgarh police station area.

The petitioners have also demanded a compensation ofRs 25 lakh to the relatives of the dead and Rs 10 to theinjured.