Kolkata: Reports on the violence during Ram Navami processions in Bengal indicate “prima facie that they were pre-planned”, the Calcutta high court observed on Monday. “There is an allegation that stones were pelted from rooftops. Obviously, the stones could not have been taken in 10-15 minutes to the rooftop. . . There was an intelligence failure,” Acting Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam said.
A division bench of Justice Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya was hearing a PIL by BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari seeking an NIA probe into the clashes. They reserved judgment on the plea.
Advocate-general SN Mookherjee, representing the state government, opposed an NIA probe and said the police were already investigating. He contended that the matter could be handed over to NIA only if there was sufficient ground to make it a fit case for the central agency.
Additional-solicitor general Ashoke Kumar Chakraborty pointed out that if explosives were used and blasts reported during the clashes, they would automatically attract the provisions of the NIA Act.
The lawyer for one of the petitioners claimed that petrol bombs were hurled during the incidents of clashes between groups of people at Shibpur in Howrah district and prayed that NIA be handed over the probe into the violence.
‘Fact finding’ team will disturb peace: Mamata
Describing the current situation in the violence-hit areas of West Bengal as "peaceful", Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed that a ‘fact finding’ team sent by a little-known NGO was visiting the state in a bid to disrupt law and order situation there.
Questioning the authority of the team headed by a former Patna High Court judge, Mamata pointed out that Ram Navami processions organised by BJP had carried arms and driven tractors and deliberately taken routes where ‘Namaz’ was being offered.
"The situation is absolutely peaceful now. To disrupt peace in the area, the fact finding team has come here. What is the function of this team? What does it do? In every matter, they (the Centre) send the Human Rights Commission, Women's Commission, Child Commission and Media Commission," Mamata, also the Trinamul Congress supremo, said.
West Bengal has witnessed violence in parts of Hooghly and Howrah districts during Ram Navami rallies. Police did not allow the 'fact-finding' team, led by retired Patna High Court judge L Narasimha Reddy, to visit any of the violence-hit areas citing prohibitory orders.