By IANS
Kolkata : The West Bengal government is getting ready to approach the Supreme Court against the Calcutta High Court order to continue the CBI probe into the March 14 police firing in Nandigram and pay compensation to the victims.
According to home department sources, the state government would file a special leave petition in next two days.
“The decision to move the Supreme Court was necessary because accepting the Calcutta High Court’s order would set a precedent. If we take the court order lying low, then it will have a far-reaching impact on any situation that might warrant such police action,” said an official.
A division bench of the Calcutta High Court, comprising Chief Justice S.S. Nijjar and Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghosh, had last week ordered the state government to provide Rs.500,000 to the family members of those killed in the March 14 police firing, Rs.200,000 for those raped during the violence and Rs.100,000 to each of the injured villagers.
At least 14 villagers were killed in police firing when villagers in Nandigram, about 150 km from here in East Midnapore district, resisted the entry of police in their areas on March 14.
Following the incident, the court had initiated a suo motu public interest litigation and had asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the police firing and submit a report within a week.
Last week, the high court ordered the CBI to continue its inquiry and submit a detailed report to the court within a month.
Nadigram flared up in January over plans to acquire land for a special economic zone (SEZ), including a chemical hub — a plan scrapped by the state government later in the face of stiff resistance.
“The government would also challenge the Calcutta High Court’s dismissal of the executive inquiry (headed by Burdwan divisional commissioner Balbir Ram) conducted soon after the March 14 police firing,” an official pointed out, adding that the probe had been conducted as per Rule 157 of the Police Regulation of Bengal (PRB).
“The inquiry has found that each of the regulations had been maintained before police opened fire at the villagers in Nandigram,” said an official.
The 157 PRB regulations include warning the crowd about police’s intention, firing at a specific target, ensuring that no greater hurt than what is unavoidable is inflicted and that the firing ceases as soon as the objective is achieved. Besides, it states that the firing must take place in the presence of a magistrate.
The toll in Nandigram has risen to 34 since January this year with fresh violence earlier this month after ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) cadres recaptured their lost bases in the area by launching a massive onslaught on rival Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC).
On Monday, the Supreme Court had refused to entertain a petition seeking its intervention in Nandigram. A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan said it could not issue direction to the central government to act in accordance with Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi’s report on the situation there or direct it to impose president’s rule in the state.