Nandigram: Court orders CBI inquiry, mob violence still on

As the death toll in the police firing yesterday climbed to 14 and the Calcutta High Court ordered a CBI probe into the incident

As the death toll in the police firing yesterday climbed to 14 and the Calcutta High Court ordered a CBI probe into the incident, a mob attacked and set fire to the Nandigram block development office, the CPM zonal party office and the CITU office. The fresh wave of violence took place around the time Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee visited Nandigram this morning.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who was planning a judicial inquiry, accepted the court’s order for a CBI probe. He justified the decision to send police into Nandigram. The police, he said, did not go there to acquire land but to restore peace and were attacked.

In the Assembly, where the Opposition created a furore before staging a walkout, Bhattacharjee said: “We want the CBI to inquire and find out whether the administration was wrong or right.” He said the loss of life was “unfortunate… it should not have happened.” At the same time, he pointed out that there was no rule of law in Nandigram for two months and no government could accept it.

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Meanwhile, the Calcutta High Court ordered a CBI inquiry into the firing. Chief Justice S S Nijjar said: “Prima facie we are satisfied that the action of the police department is wholly unconstitutional and cannot be justified under any provision of law.” Such use of force, he said, can only be accepted in case of insurgency.

Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi, who yesterday expressed a “sense of cold horror”, today visited the Tamluk sub-division hospital and met 26 injured from Nandigram. “It’s a time of great pain. There is no denying the fact that one has to graduate from agriculture to industry but one has to ensure that the road to transformation is a happy one,” Gandhi told reporters.