Lalgarh police officer gets show cause notice

KOLKATA - Ashok Basu, the officer in-charge of the Lalgarh police station in West Bengal, was Tuesday given a show cause notice for negligence in the wake of the Jan 7 killing of seven villagers near the Maoist stronghold.

“He has been asked to explain in writing the allegations levelled against the police that it went to the spot hours after the incident though the police station was 3.5 km from the spot,” West Midnapore District Superintendent of Police Manoj Verma, who issued the show cause notice, told IANS.

The show cause notice came a day after a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the Calcutta High Court Bar Association, which alleged that despite repeated phone calls since 9.30 a.m., personnel from the Lalgarh police station reached the spot after 12.30 p.m.

The Calcutta High Court division bench also directed the state government to send an officer of a deputy inspector general (DIG) rank to Lalgarh police station to collect the case diary and produce it before the court immediately.

A senior police officer said Verma has asked the officer in-charge to explain in writing why departmental action should not be taken against him for the delay and also asked him to be present before the Deputy Inspector General (Midnapore Range) Anil Kumar to explain his stand.

Seven people were killed and at least 20 injured in firing allegedly triggered by assailants sheltered in an armed cadre’s camp of the state’s ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist.