Bengal Ram Navami clashes: NIA seeks details from state police

Kolkata, May 3

National Investigation Agency (NIA) probing the Ram Navami violence in Howrah and Hooghly districts of West Bengal, on Wednesday, sought from the state police all the documents, including copies of the FIRs, related to the case.

A communique on this count has reached the offices of the commissioners of Chandernagore Police Commiserate and Howrah City Police, sources said.

A copy of the same has also been forwarded to the office of the additional director general in charge of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the state police.

Although initially CID-West Bengal took over the investigation, on April 27, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court ordered an NIA probe into it.

It is learnt that NIA has sought a quick response from the state police authorities so that their sleuths can start the investigation at the earliest.

Meanwhile, state government sources said that the administration is mulling the possibility of approaching the Supreme Court challenging the decision of the division bench of the Calcutta High Court directing NIA probe into the matter.

On April 27, while directing the NIA to take over the probe in the matter, Calcutta High Court's division bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya also directed the state police to handover all case-related documents to the NIA within the next two weeks.

While passing the order, the bench observed that it is beyond the ability of the state police to find those who were responsible for the clashes or who instigated it and hence a probe by a central agency was necessary.

Earlier, the division bench questioned the efficiency of the intelligence wing of the state police regarding pelting of stones from the roofs of residences in the troubled belts.

The bench questioned the failure of the intelligence in getting information about stones being accumulated on the rooftops.