New Delhi(IANS) : The Supreme Court Thursday restrained the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from taking action against any West Bengal police officials involved in the March 14 police firing at Nandigram.
A bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan said it was temporarily suspending a part of the Calcutta High Court order, which asked for a CBI probe into the police firing that killed 14 people.
The bench, which also included Justices R.V Raveendran and J.M. Panchal, however, clarified that it was not preventing the CBI from continuing, as per the high court order, its ongoing probe into the role of police officials in the firing.
The bench’s directive came on a petition by the state government challenging the high court order, which had also passed strong strictures against it and had termed the police firing as “illegal and unconstitutional”.
The state government had sought deletion of the harsh remarks against it from the court’s order.
On the state government’s petition, the apex court bench also issued notices to the CBI as well as the Association for Protection for Democratic Rights and other respondents on whose petition the high court had passed its order.