Calcutta High Court halts CBI probe into Nandigram

The Calcutta High Court on Monday refused continuation of CBI enquiry into the March 14 police firing for the present and asked the investigating agency to preserve all evidence in sealed covers.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice S S Nijjar and Justice P C Ghose did not allow petitioner Kalyan Banerjee's plea that CBI be directed to continue its inquiry and observed that it would decide on the need of it only after studying all affidavits filed by the state government and petitioners in the matter.

The bench, which was flooded with a number of affidavits and petitions that were filed by several NGOs and individual lawyers to become party to the litigation, said that it needed time to go through all the claims and counter-claims before deciding on the issue.

The court adjourned the matter for three weeks.

The bench also directed CBI to preserve all evidence, most of which are documentary in nature, in sealed covers till further directions.

The CBI had submitted an inquiry report before the court on March 22 on the police firing which claimed 14 lives.

The Chief Justice, taking note of West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi's statement and media reports after the Nandigram incident, had suo motu directed the CBI to conduct an enquiry.

Advocate General Balai Roy submitted that the Governor need not be dragged into any controversy over the issue, to which the court concurred.

Meanwhile, at least 45 people from Orissa were detained at Kharagpur while on their way to Nandigram to express solidarity with the locals there, officials said on Monday.

They were brought to the town police station for questioning, they said. They were being questioned to know the motive of their proposed visit, the officials said, adding that police have also contacted their counterparts in Orissa to know about the antecedents of those detained.