NIA registers six FIRs in West Bengal Ram Navami violence case

Kolkata (IANS) | The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the Ram Navami violence in West Bengal following the order of the Calcutta High Court, has so far registered six FIRs in the matter. Sources said the central agency will hand over copies of the six FIRs to the Calcutta High Court on Thursday. Will also seek court’s direction so that the state police officially hand over the charge of the investigation to the NIA.

Along with this, the central agency’s counsel will also seek the court’s direction to the state police to hand over the arrested accused to the NIA.

The NIA recently sent letters to the Additional Director General in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the West Bengal Police as well as the commissioners of the Chandranagar Police Commissionerate and Howrah City Police seeking documents related to the violence, including copies of FIRs filed by the state police.

Although initially CID-West Bengal took over the investigation. On 27 April, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court ordered an NIA probe. It is learned that the NIA has sought prompt response from the state police authorities so that its officials can start the investigation at the earliest.

Directing the NIA to take over the probe, Calcutta High Court Chief Justice T.S. A bench of Justices Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmoy Bhattacharya had also directed the state police on April 27 to hand over all the documents related to the case to the NIA within the next two weeks.

Passing the order, the bench said that it was beyond the capability of the state police to find those who were responsible for the clashes or who instigated them, and hence a probe by a central agency was necessary.

Earlier, the bench had questioned the efficiency of the intelligence wing of the state police in dealing with stone-pelting from rooftops of houses in troubled areas.

The bench questioned the failure of the intelligence system to receive information about accumulation of stones on the terraces.

–IANS