Kolkata: The CBI on Tuesday registered a case in the Netai firing incident in which nine persons were killed last month, after the Calcutta High Court directed the state government to handover the case to the agency.
The CBI will take over the investigation from the CID and local police and would submit its progress report to the high court every fortnight as per the directions of a division bench comprising Chief Justice JN Patel and Justice Asim Kumar Roy, official sources said.
The division bench had ordered the CID to hand over the papers of the case and the two accused in its custody to the CBI forthwith. The court had also directed the CBI to furnish a progress report before it every fortnight when the matter comes up for hearing again.
Lalgarh, where Netai village is situated, was a Maoist hotbed, but has lately been reclaimed by CPI-M which has allegedly set up several armed camps there.
Nine villagers, including three women, were killed in indiscriminate firing from a house allegedly belonging to a local CPI-M leader Rathin Dandapat at Netai in West Midnapore district on January 7.
It has been alleged that armed CPI-M cadres had set up a camp in the two-storeyed house and had been threatening and browbeating the villagers into participating in armed training.
Six CPI-M workers and leaders, including Lalgarh local committee secretary were named in the FIR and the CID had announced a reward for the information about them.
Two persons - Aswini Chalak and Abani Singh - were arrested just a day before the last day's hearing into the case earlier this week. The CBI will start the probe on the basis of FIR filed by the CID and local police, the sources said.
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