CBI seeks two more weeks to provide documents to state

“The ADG had requested the CBI to hand over documents related to the investigation,but the CBI had not replied,” Talukdar said.

Advocate Asraf Ali,counsel to the CBI,subsequently said the CBI was preparing its reply and sought two weeks time to provide the documents. Allowing the plea,a Division Bench headed by Justice Ashim Kumar Banerjee asked the CBI to provide the reply to the state and stayed the case till October 7.

Based on a Calcutta High Court ruling in November 2007,the CBI had investigated into the police firing at Nandigram and had asked the state government in December 2012 to sanction,under Section 197 of CrPC,prosecution the then officer-in-charge (OC) of Nandigram police station Sekhar Roy,OC of Khejuri police station Amit Hati,Additional SP of Howrah Satyajit Banerjee,Additional SP of Tamluk Debasish Boral,the S-I of Khejuri police station Sambhu Das and Dr Lakhi Kanta Ghosh who was at the time vice-principal of NRS Medical college.

The state government,however,had declined permission to prosecute the six and raised the question of why top officials of the police who led the operation at Nandigram were not being questioned by the CBI.

“The CBI should investigate the role of the former Chief Minister Budhadev Bhattacharya,” the state had told the CBI.

The tussle between the state and the CBI reached the Calcutta High Court when Sukumar Jana,resident of Nandigram who lost his family member filed writ petition on the CBI investigation.