Kolkata. A division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Thursday upheld the order of a special court and ordered a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into the twin blasts in Birbhum district in 2019. A division bench of Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Biwas Patnaik also ordered the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of West Bengal Police to hand over all documents related to the case to the NIA. Apart from this, the CID was directed to provide all necessary cooperation to the central agency in the investigation.
On 29 August 2019, an explosion took place at Haitunesa Khatoon’s house in Ranguni village of Birbhum district. The second blast took place on 20 September 2019 at the house of Bablu Mandal in Gangpur village of the same district.
Initially the investigation was being done by the CID, but later the NIA took over the investigation. However, the central agency later approached a special court alleging that the CID officials refused to hand over the documents related to the case to the NIA.
The special court directed the CID to hand over the documents to the NIA. Thereafter, the state government challenged the decision in the Calcutta High Court.
On Thursday, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court upheld the special court’s order and directed the CID to hand over all documents related to the case to the central probe agency.
The Bench said that as per law, it is mandatory for any state investigating agency to submit a preliminary report to the NIA, which has the prerogative to accept the findings of the preliminary report.
However, the court observed that no such preliminary report was sent to the NIA in the case of the twin blasts.
The Bench also said that since the jurisdiction of the NIA is much wider than that of any state agency, the double blast case should be investigated by a central probe agency.
—AnyTV News
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