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Nandigram: State to submit affidavit

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: The State government was directed by the Calcutta High Court on Friday to submit an affidavit with regard to a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the violence that had claimed lives in Nandigram, in West Bengal’s Purbo Medinipur district, in the early part of November 2007.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice S. S. Nijjar and Justice P. C. Ghose directed that the affidavit be filed within eight weeks and adjourned a hearing on the prayer for ten weeks after taking into consideration the arguments of the State’s Advocate General, Balai Roy and those made on behalf of the petitioner, Sabyasachi Roy Choudhury.

Mr. Roy maintained that the PIL was not maintainable as 260 cases had already been registered by the local police regarding the violence. There had been no law and order problem in the area since November 11, 2007 he added.

Mr. Roy Choudhury had filed the litigation on the grounds that the police pickets had been withdrawn from different areas of Nandigram enabling cadres of a particular political party to enter and indulge in violence there.

Arguing on behalf of the petitioner, Kalyan Banerjee said that the police had been withdrawn to enable cadres of the CPI(M) to enter Nandigram and recapture the area. At least five persons were killed, several others injured and many displaced in the violence in November, he claimed.

The Calcutta High Court had earlier directed the CBI to investigate into the police firing and subsequent violence that claimed 14 lives in Nandigram on March 14, 2007.

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