A two-judge Bench comprising Chief Justice Jaynarayan Patel and Justice Asim Kumar Roy directed the state government to hand over the inquiry to the CBI as the CID has failed to probe the incident. The Bench also asked the CBI to report the progress of the investigation before the court within 15 days after taking over the case. The state government had vehemently opposed a CBI probe into the killings allegedly by armed goons hired by the CPM.
This is the third occasion in the last two years when the high court ordered CBI probe into the killings in West Bengal. Earlier, the court had asked the central investigating agency to probe the killings in Nandigram and mysterious murder of Rizwanur Rehman.
In a packed court room, the Bench pulled up the CID, observing that the agency has been given enough time to investigate the case, but sadly it failed to make any headway into it. As the hearing began, state advocate general Balai Roy placed the case diary of the incident before the Bench and sought more time to continue the investigation.
But the Chief Justice sought an explanation from the Advocate General as to why the investigators did not interrogate the Lalgarh local committee members who were allegedly involved in the massacre. The case diary also recorded the statement of Abhani Bhusan Singh, a Lalgarh CPM local committee member, who conceded before the police that the Netai incident was planned by none other than the CPM. The court also directed the authorities to assist the CBI in every possible manner into the probe.
The matter came before the high court after Calcutta High Court Bar Association and lawyer Kalyan Banerjee moved a PIL seeking a CBI inquiry into the incident.