Kolkata: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) Tuesday moved the Calcutta High Court against the FIR lodged against its officers whom the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) accused of ‘molesting’ women late at night at Bhupatinagar in West Bengal’s East Medinipur.
The high court granted the NIA permission to file its application which also sought interim protection from any coercive action by the Bengal police.
Hearing will take place Wednesday in the court of Justice Jay Sengupta.
The NIA has said its teams followed all procedures while carrying out the arrest of suspects in a 2022 blast case. Searches were conducted at five locations in the presence of independent witnesses, and under the security cover provided by CRPF, which included lady constables, it has said in a statement.
“An NIA official sustained injuries and an official vehicle was also damaged in the attack. The NIA has already filed a complaint at the area police station seeking legal action against the assailants,” the NIA statement added.
It is learnt that the Bhupatinagar police station had sent a notice to the NIA officer who filed the complaint of attack in Bhupatinagar during a raid on 6 April (Wednesday). Another notice was sent to the officer who sustained minor injury during the incident. He was asked to produce a medical report by 11 April.
The NIA officers to bring the car with them which was allegedly vandalised, for forensic test, sources in the district police said. Three villagers have also been summoned for questioning in connection with the probe of attack on the NIA.
On Saturday, the central probe agency faced obstruction after it arrested local Trinamool Congress leaders Manobrata Jana and Bailicharan Maity from their homes. In a video widely shared on social media, agitated women block a road to stop a white SUV in which the NIA team was travelling. ThePrint has not verified the source of the video.
This incident took place barely three months after an ED team was attacked in Sandeshkhali. Three ED officers were admitted in hospital after sustaining critical injuries during search operations in Sandeshkhali against suspended TMC strongman Sheikh Shahjahan in the alleged ration scam probe.
Senior officials of the NIA who ThePrint spoke to said, the arrested persons were served two notices to join the investigation, but they did not appear. Upon taking permission from the NIA court in Kolkata, they reached their residence with a search warrant. While one team was at the police station, the other one was raiding the location.
Regarding the probe progress, NIA sources told ThePrint, during a review meeting about two months ago, the Bhupatinagar blast case was taken up, its technical evidence reexamined after which the NIA sent notices for interrogation to suspects and witnesses.
An NIA officer told ThePrint that the probe into a dozen crude bomb explosion cases in Bengal had hit a roadblock as the witnesses were not cooperating and also because of a new investigating officer taking over the case.
In the ongoing case at Bhupatinagar, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has levelled serious allegations against the NIA, claiming the agency is working at the “behest of the BJP” and was being “misused” to harass women at midnight.
“You send agencies at midnight to harass women of the area and later claim that those women attacked the (NIA officers). Law and order is a state subject, you don’t inform local police and attack women at 3 am and later inform local police at 5 am. These things can’t work,” Mamata said at a public rally in Bankura.
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PIL that led to NIA probe
On 2 December 2022, an explosion inside the house of Trinamool block president Rajkumar Manna in Nariabelia village of East Medinipur killed him, his brother Buddhadeb Manna and another person, Biswajit Gayen.
The BJP had claimed that the crude bombs were being “manufactured” at the residence of a local Trinamool Congress leader, a charge denied by the TMC.
While an FIR was registered, no section under the Explosive Substances Act was invoked by the police. Later, an advocate of Calcutta High Court filed a PIL and the investigation was handed over to the NIA. Sections of the Explosive Substances Act were then incorporated in June 2023.
In its order dated 2 June 2023 directing the NIA to begin investigation, the Union home ministry stated that “manufacturing of illegal bombs/firecrackers has become a cottage industry in West Bengal and the incidents of accidental blasts are taking precious lives of innocent civilians. The local population is also being terrorised by such incidents.”
ThePrint has accessed a copy of the RC filed by NIA.
Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 285 (endangers human lives with fire), 286 (endangers human lives with explosives), 304 (culpable homicide) of the IPC; Sections 3 & 4 of Explosive Substances Act, 1908 and Section 26 of WB Fire Safety Act, 1950 (penalty for not taking licence for warehouse or workshop) had been invoked against unknown persons by the police based on which the NIA filed its RC (Regular Case) on 4 June
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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