Author: Subrata Nagchoudhury
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: April 1, 2007
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/27208.html
Introduction: CBI rebuts govt claim that party
had no role in firing; Our men have to protect themselves: CPM
The CPM-led Left Front government in West
Bengal has maintained that the March 14 police firing in Nandigram in which
14 people were killed was "unfortunate" and "tragic" and
that the police had little choice when they were faced by a violent mob. The
government denied that CPM party cadres were involved in any way.
However, in what could deeply embarrass the
government, the Central Bureau of Investigation - ordered by the Calcutta
High Court to probe the incident - has found evidence that contradicts this
claim and establishes a link between the violence that day and CPM cadres
who were supplied illegal arms and ammunition.
Highly placed sources have told The Sunday
Express that the CBI's report, presented to the court, contains evidence to
show how, well before the incident in Nandigram on March 14, party cadres
were brought in by local CPM leaders and accommodated in "three office
rooms" of the Janani Brick Field at Sherkhanchawk, barely 300 m from
the Bhangabera bridge, the site of the police firing.
Three days after the incident, the CBI arrested
10 of those CPM cadres during a surprise raid on the kiln. Based on their
interrogation and recovery of material, the CBI has claimed that those arrested
were supplied illegal weapons and a huge cache of ammunition (see box) by
an "organized political party" (a reference to the CPM) with a view
to create terror and attack "political activists of the opposite political
party at the point of gun and muscle power."
The stockpile included .315 rifles, countrymade
firearms, shotguns, automatic pistols and revolvers and hundreds of cartridges.
Raj Kanojia, a spokesman of the state police,
confirmed to The Sunday Express that the police force deployed in Nandigram
on that day did not use .315 cartridges. But, significantly, the CBI team
found as many as "238 pieces of empty cartridge case of 8 mm/.315 from
the men arrested at the brick kiln."
The CBI team also reported that those arrested
had, with them, as many as 367 pieces of live cartridges of this 8 mm/.315
variety. Some of the cartridges recovered by the CBI were also said to be
blood-stained.
Five mobile phone handsets were recovered
as well from the arrested men in the brick kiln and the CBI is said to be
investigating the calls made to and from these. Sources said the agency has
established that the cadres were in touch with local leaders, including gun-runners
and local criminals.
CBI investigators also recovered from those
arrested several books of CPM party receipts, leaflets of the party's youth
wing, Democratic Youth Federation, and the All India Krishak Sabha, the party's
peasant wing. Figuring in the list of items recovered: "CPM flags, telephone
diaries, personal diaries, green helmets, correspondence, a map and some yellow
coloured plastic gunny bags having blackish stains."
Benoy Konar, CPM state secretariat and central
committee member and the president of the West Bengal unit of the All India
Krishak Sabha, when asked about this evidence told The Sunday Express: "Our
party men in Nandigram needed to protect themselves from the onslaught of
the rival camps. We will have our defence should the issue come up before
the court."
The CBI's finding reinforces public apprehension
in Nandigram that the area is set for a protracted, even violent, political
turf battle. Seizing on land as an issue, rival political parties have all
got together and forced the CPM on the defensive.
Many CPM voters in the block of villagers,
who refused to join the protests against the government's decision to set
up a chemical hub in Nandigram, have been evicted from their homes. State
Industries Minister Nirupam Sen admitted to this newspaper that the party
had been "caught on the wrong foot" as it could not reach out to
the villagers on time.
Although Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
has announced that there will be no hub - and, therefore, no land acquisition
- in Nandigram, the region is still tense and those evicted from their homes
are increasingly getting impatient.
=================
Found at the site from CPM Cadres: CBI
What CBI says it found from the ten arrested
Arms
o .315 rifle having SL NO. AB 846231
o .315 rifle having SL No. AB 002231
o .315 rifle having SL No. AB002312
o .315 rifle having SL NO. AB 000041
o Country-made firearm (rifle) without any
number.
o Shotgun, made in England, No 26847, single-barreled
o Shot gun with serial No 527932, single-barreled
o Firearm with the impression "DBS Enterprise,
Calcutta (India), model 55
o Shotgun with impression "Selected Forged
Steel Proof", 2 ¾ inch chamber, model 94C
o Country-made pistol
o Automatic pistol, made in China
o Country-made six-cylinder revolver
o One revolver made in Japan
o Country-made pistol
Ammunition
o 238 empty cartridge cases of 8 mm /.315
bore
o 47 live .12 bore cartridges
o 27 live .12 bore cartridges and one empty
case
o 44 live cartridges of various types
o 33 live cartridges of various type
o 367 live cartridges of 8 mm/.315
o 261 live cartridges of .380 inch bore, and
one empty case
