Nicole Tamang missing,Calcutta HC pulls up CBI

The Calcutta High Court pulled up the CBI for not starting the investigation into the missing case of Nicole Tamang in the last one and half month.

The Calcutta High Court today pulled up the CBI for not starting the investigation into the missing case of Nicole Tamang in the last one and half month. Nicole Tamang is the prime accused in the Madan Tamang murder case and he allegedly escaped from CID custody in Siliguri and could not be traced since then.

The state government had handed over the Nicole Tamang missing case to the CBI on November 25,2010. Advocate Himangsu De,public prosecutor of the CBI,pleaded that the CBI did not start the investigation till today as it was under process. Justifying the delay,the CBI counsel pleaded that the Centre did not issue a notification for taking up the Nicole Tamang missing case as a result of which the CBI could not start the investigation. The CBI cannot take up a case unless the Centre issued a notification as per the legal provisions.

De also said that the CBI may accept a case or refuse to take it over even if any state government decides to hand over a case to the central agency. The Division Bench of Chief Justice Jaynarayan Patel and Justice Ashim Kumar Roy then sought to know on what circumstances the CBI accepts or refuses a case. The Bench asked the agency to give reply on that point. The case will come up for hearing tomorrow.

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The CBI said in its affidavits that the agency was running short of staff and it needed logistic support from the state government to carry out investigation into the Nicole missing case. The Division Bench said that the CBI was a reputed investigative agency in India. Why should it require logistic support to carry out probe on its own? the court asked.

Madan Tamang,president of the All India Gorkha League,was killed in Darjeeling on May 21 and Nicole Tamang,a leader of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha was prime accused in the case.

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