HC opens CBI report on Nandigram, seeks status report from govt

KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court, which on Wednesday opened a CBI report on the police action in Nandigram in which 14 persons were killed, directed the West Bengal government to place before it a status report on the troubled area by Thursday.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice S S Nijjar and Justice P C Ghose, after going through the CBI report, said the central investigating agency had given its report on the basis of its findings till March 23 and was inconclusive.

The bench quoted a paragraph of the report which said the CBI could not come to any definite conclusion yet.

The court directed state Advocate General Balai Roy to submit a status report on the situation in Nandigram till date to get a clear picture.

Advocate Kalyan Banerjee, appearing for one of the several petitioners in the case, submitted that situation in Nandigram was very volatile and that one person was killed and some others injured in fresh clashes last Sunday, while some artistes and intellectuals who had gone to the troubled area to distribute relief were assaulted on Tuesday.

The court directed that the CBI report, except for the one paragraph that it read out, would remain in sealed cover till further direction.

The matter would be heard again on Thursday.

The Chief Justice had, just a day after the police action on March 14, directed the CBI to enquire into the police firing at Nandigram and to submit a report before it.