Find and destroy armed camps in Bengal, court tells forces
By IANSWednesday, January 19, 2011
KOLKATA - The Calcutta High Court Wednesday directed the joint security forces to find out if armed camps existed in West Bengals Junglemahal area and destroy them.
It also asked the state government to pay compensation to the victims of the Jan 7 Netai village carnage but refused to order a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the massacre.
A division bench of Chief Justice J.N. Patel and Justice A.K. Roy, in an interim order, asked the state police Criminal Investigation Department CID) to continue its inquiry. However, the court would monitor the probe.
The order came in the wake of a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the Calcutta High Court Bar Association pleading for a CBI probe into the violence in the village near the Maoist hub of Lalgarh, about 200 km west of Kolkata in West Midnapore district.
It has been alleged that the violence was triggered by firing from an armed camp run from the compound of a Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader’s house. The CPI-M is the major partner in the Left Front, which is ruling the state uninterruptedly since 1977.
Directing the state government to pay compensation to the victims in seven days, the court said kin of those who died in firing have to be paid a compensation of Rs.2 lakh each, while the seriously injured would get Rs.1 lakh and other injured Rs.50,000 each.
On the armed camps which are said to be run in the Junglemahal -the forest areas of West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura districts where the Maoist guerillas are active - the bench directed the joint security forces operating in the area to find out whether such camps exist and destroy them.
The bench also asked the state home secretary to submit a compliance report on the order.
The report, to be filed by the next date of hearing Feb 4, will have to give details of the progress of the CID probe, the court said.
