Terming the police action in West Bengal's Nandigram as "unfortunate", Defence Minister A K Antony on Saturday said there was no need to send in the army to handle the situation there.
"On the whole it was unfortunate. But I do not want to make it a topic of political debate now as the CBI inquiry is on," Antony told reporters at the airport in Thiruvananthapuram.
Asked if it was necessary to send the army to Nandigram, he said there was no such proposal before the Centre as such situations were to he handled by the state governments.
"Neither did they (West Bengal government) ask for it, nor has the Centre thought about it," he said.
As a Union minister, he said, it would be improper on his part to say something on the issue now as the CBI had already begun an inquiry into the circumstances that led to the police firing on a directive from the Calcutta high court.
Meanwhile, CBI sleuths probing the police action in Nandigram that claimed 14 lives inspected several areas of Gokulnagar village and dug up soil at some places to ascertain whether any body or arms had been buried there.
The investigating team, accompanied by forensic experts, dug up the ground at Gokulnagar following claims by villagers
that bodies and arms were buried there.
Gokulnagar is located close to Sonachura, where most of the casualties occurred during the police action on March 14.
Reporters watched the proceedings from a distance as they were barred from going near the places visited by the team.
CBI officials did not respond to queries from the media about their finds during the day.
The team later went to Tamluk Hospital and spoke to a number of persons injured on Wednesday.
They enquired from them about the circumstances under which they were wounded and that what they were doing then.
The people were also asked who, according to them, caused their injuries.
The team had on Friday visited Sonachura village in Nandigram block and marked bloodstained spots and collected
spent bullets.
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