CBI: No evidence against govt in arms case

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday said there was no evidence linking any Indian politician or government agency with the Purulia arms drop case of 1995, dismissing claims of accused Kim Davy that the clandestine work was carried out by "political forces" at the Centre to destabilise the Left front Government of West Bengal.

The agency said it has "clinching" evidence against mastermind Kim Davy's alleged "act of terror" and is making all efforts to bring him to India to face trial in the case.

"CBI has clinching evidence against Kim Davy and has elaborate details about the manner in which he carried out the Purulia arms drop. There is no evidence that any government agency or Indian politician helped him," CBI spokesperson Dharini Mishra said.

Davy, prime accused in the case, had claimed to a television channel that the then P V Narasimha Rao government had plotted the operation to destabilise the West Bengal government by arming locals in the state.

He had also claimed that India's external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing planned the operation with the help of its British counterpart Military Intelligence, Section 5, on the Centre's directions.

"The CBI is making all efforts to bring Davy to India. CBI has been able to establish in Indian court and to Danish Government that Davy's crime is tantamount to act of terror," she said in the statement.

Meanwhile, high level government sources said Davy's claim is "far-fetched" and a "tactic to complicate" the process of his extradition from Denmark. They said there was no need for the Centre to take help from people like Davy to dismiss an elected dispensation as there were various other methods available to destabilise the state government.

"The then Central (Congress) government had no intention to destabilise the Jyoti Basu government by arming people opposed to it," the sources said.

The government sources rejected Davy's claim that Indian agencies were in the know of the arms drop, saying "it is completely false. Otherwise the Central government would not have approached the Danish government for his extradition.

"A lower court in Denmark has ordered the extradition of Niels Christien Nielsen alias Kim Davy to India, following which he approached the higher court in that country, challenging the lower court order.

Sources said that by making allegations against the Indian government he wants to complicate the whole issue and wants to further delay his extradition to India. The Denmark government wanted India to ensure that Davy would not be given death sentence if he is extradited, which was agreed to.