By IANS,
Kolkata : A court Tuesday sent former Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) MP Laxman Seth and two of his associates, arrested in connection with the 2007 Nandigram violence, to three days’ CID custody.
“The court rejected their (Seth along with Ashok Guria and Amiya Sahu) bail plea and has ordered them to CID custody till Friday when they will again be produced before the court,” Deputy Inspector General (Operations-CID) K. Jayaraman said.
The prosecution had demanded 10 days’ custody, contending that the interrogation of the accused can lead to discovery of several people who went missing following the incident in 2007.
The defence, however, contended that the accused were falsely charged in the case and sought their bail which was rejected by the court.
Seth, along with Guria and Sahu — two district level leaders of the CPI-M, was arrested from a guest house in Chembur area of Mumbai March 17. The three were produced at a court in Mumbai which handed them to CID custody on a transit remand till March 22.
Meanwhile, a two-day prohibitory order had been imposed by the administration barring gathering of people within the Haldia court premises, as hundreds of locals assembled outside the court demanding death sentence for the trio accused to be the “masterminds” of the clashes in the district which claimed several lives in 2007.
Seth, a former MP of Tamluk – which includes Nandigram – and his two associates are among the 88 people named in the charge-sheet filed Jan 30 in the death of six villagers and disappearance of seven others after armed clashes in Nandigram area of East Midnapore district.
Meanwhile, the CPI-M said Seth was a victim of “vendetta politics”, indulged in by the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government in the state.
“They have been falsely implicated. The (state) government is indulging in politics of vendetta against our party leaders. This is not democracy… it is partycracy,” leader of opposition and CPI-M heavyweight Surjya Kanta Mishra told the media immediately after the court order.