By IANS,
Kolkata: West Bengal’s Left Front chairman Biman Bose Saturday said the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) clarification in the Purulia arms drop case raised critical questions.
“CBI gave a clarification yesterday (Friday) in the Purulia arms drop case. It said during investigation into the case no evidence came to light whatsoever that government agencies helped the men of Kim Davy (the prime accused in the case). CBI’s clarification has raised some questions,” Bose told a press conference here.
Davy had in an interview to a television channel alleged that the drop was planned by the Indian government in collaboration with British intelligence to destabilise the Communist government in West Bengal.
The CBI rebuffed the theory and said that there is no evidence to prove Davy’s claims.
“CBI did not say that how Kim Davy escaped from India. How a foreign cargo plain entered the country. This has raised a critical question about the air surveillance in our country. Air surveillance in Purulia is carried out by either army’s Panagarh centre or by Kalaikunda centre. But CBI did not say why radar at Kalaikunda was inoperative at that time,” he said.
Taking potshots at senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, Bose said, “Arms dealer Peter Bleach got presidential pardon during the BJP government at the centre in 2004. Then Mamata Banerjee and Advani were cabinet ministers. How could the cabinet approve it?”
On the night of Dec 17, 1995, a large consignment of arms, including several hundred AK-47 rifles, anti-tank weapons and ammunition were dropped from a Latvian aircraft in Purulia.
Five Lativian citizens and British arms dealer Bleach were arrested, but Davy managed to escape.
Davy, who was located in Denmark, could not be extradited to India as a Danish court said he was unlikely to get a fair trial and would possibly face a threat to his life.