The CBI is set to chargesheet policemen and government officials for the Nandigram firing once it receives the Bengal government’s sanction for prosecution.
“We are preparing the chargesheet,” said a senior CBI official, claiming the agency had an airtight case. He did not reveal the identities of those who would be chargesheeted.
“Next week, we will write to the Mamata Banerjee government seeking sanction for prosecution against the policemen, police officers and government officials involved in the firing. Once we get the sanction, the chargesheet will be filed immediately,” the CBI official said.
The criminal procedure code makes such sanction mandatory for the prosecution of public servants if the alleged offence was committed while they were discharging or purporting to discharge their official duties.
The Bengal police had fired on land protesters and left 14 villagers dead on March 14, 2007, sparking a political upheaval that was key to ending the Left’s 34-year rule in Bengal.
“During the probe, we found that the firing was unprovoked and illegal,” said a CBI source who was part of the team that investigated the incident under Calcutta High Court orders.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court had given the CBI the go-ahead to file the chargesheet after allowing the Bengal government to withdraw its Left predecessor’s appeal against a Calcutta High Court order that had dubbed the firing “unconstitutional” and “wholly unjustified”.
The Mamata government had told the Supreme Court it was “not interested” in proceeding with the special leave petitions filed by the former Left Front government, and requested that the petitions be withdrawn in the interests of justice.
Calcutta High Court had asked the CBI to probe the firing and prosecute any policeman or official who might have transgressed the law.
In an appeal to the apex court in December 2007, the then Left government had said the high court “was wholly unjustified in rendering strong and definite findings of unconstitutionality and illegality in the firing which the police were forced to undertake”.