Calcutta HC orders yet another NIA probe in West Bengal

The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday ordered a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe in West Bengal and this time on the alleged murder of two former school students at North Dinajpur district way back in September 2018.

A single-judge bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha ordered the probe in the matter of the killing of Tapas Burman and Rahesh Sarkar, former students of Darivit High School in North Dinajpur district on September 20, 2018 within the school compound.

While passing the order, Justice Mantha observed that there had been complaints of use of bombs, explosives and firearms in the incidents of clashes where these two former students were killed.

He also said that since the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the state police was unable to make sufficient progress in its investigation, the charge of probe is being handed over to the NIA.

To recall, in September 2018, a group of students, their guardians and former students of Darivit High School started protesting over the decision of school authorities to appoint Urdu and Sanskrit teachers ignoring the vacancies of teachers for crucial subjects like Science and Mathematics.

Those opposing the movement entered into clashes with the protesters which turned the entire area into a virtual battlefield on that day when the two former students of the school were killed in firing.

Justice Mantha, on Wednesday, observed that although the post-mortem reports suggest that the bullets which killed Sarkar and Burman were fired from highly improvised firearms, the CID sleuths were unable to identify the nature of the firearms used on the day.

Justice Mantha, also expressed ire over the role of West Bengal Human Rights Commission (WBHRC), which was assigned the task of parallel probe in the matter. He observed that WBHRC's findings were based just on the inputs given by the district magistrate and the district police superintendent, which proves how reluctant the commission was in the matter. He also directed the state government to immediately arrange for compensation for the victims in the clashes.