NIA moves Calcutta HC accusing Bengal police of non-cooperation in Ram Navami violence probe

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday approached Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Jay Sengupta accusing the West Bengal police administration of non-cooperation in the on-going probe into the violence during Ram Navami processions this year.

The central investigating agency has accused the state administration of delaying the process of handover of case- related documents to them.

This is not the first time that NIA has accused the state administration of non-cooperation in the matter. Earlier on June 19, it approached the Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha with the same complaint.

Recently, Justice Mantha was elevated as division-bench judge. So the central agency has now approached the bench of Justice Sengupta in the matter.

The petition by NIA on this count has been admitted and the matter will come up for hearing on Thursday.

The order for NIA probe in the matter was given by the division bench of Calcutta High Court’s Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya.

However, the state government challenged that order at the Supreme Court on grounds that the NIA probe was ordered based on public interest litigation, which according to the state government, was unjustified.

The state government petition on this count was dismissed by the apex court three- judge bench of Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra.

On April 27 this year, while ordering a NIA probe into the matter, Calcutta High Court’s division bench observed that it is beyond the ability of the state police to find those who were responsible for the clashes or who instigated it and hence a probe by a central agency was necessary.

Earlier, the same division bench also questioned the efficiency of the intelligence wing of the state police regarding pelting of stones from the roofs of residences in the troubled belts. The bench questioned the failure of the intelligence in getting information about stones being accumulated on the rooftops.