Kerala - Kochi   

CBI to investigate Beypore blast case

Staff Reporter

Court says CBI should seek assistance of IB, DRI

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Thursday ordered a CBI investigation into the explosion in a fishing boat anchored at the Beypore fishing harbour in Kozhikode on September 17, 2005.

The Court said the CBI should seek the assistance of other Central Government agencies such as Intelligence Bureau and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence. The Court also made it clear that the CBI could approach the competent authority or this Court to constitute a special team consisting of Intelligence Bureau officials and Director of Revenue Intelligence officials, if it felt that such a team was to be formed. The Intelligence Bureau and Coast Guard should share any information they had collected regarding the incidents at Marad. The Additional DIG (Intelligence) should also give the CBI the information the State Intelligence had collected.

The directives were given by Justice K. Padmanabhan Nair while allowing a writ petition seeking CBI inquiry filed by K. Vasudevan of North Beypore. He alleged that the Crime Branch had not been able to make any headway in the investigation so far.

The Court after going through the case diary found that the investigation officers had not made any attempt to investigate certain aspects as to who invested the balance amount for buying the boat, engine and other equipment and what was their real intention. The investigation officers had also not investigated whether the boat was used for some other purpose such as carrying contraband articles from deep sea to the shore.

The Court said it was admitted by the investigation officer that no fingerprints, footprints or other marks, which were helpful in identifying the accused, were found. The present investigation officer did not even bother to find out whether there was a case in which explosive substances were thrown to the boat from outside with an intention to destroy it or whether the explosion occurred when the boat was used for transporting explosive substances to Marad.

The Court also pointed out that the sources from where the explosive substances were brought had not been traced. The answer to these questions could be found only by a team of professionals, the judge said.

The Court pointed out that the police had not been able to trace the real culprits. Even though the incident took place in September 2005, no useful information had been collected till date by the investigation officer. It was also admitted in the statement of the police that the investigation so far conducted did not disclose any clue about the culprit.

The judge also said that it was necessary to find out whether the explosion was organised by any terrorists or fundamentalist organisations as alleged by the petitioner. It was also necessary to find out whether any external agency had any role in the explosion.

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