CPM threat to CBI witnesses

Statesman News Service KOLKATA, Jan. 2: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) asked the state government to take steps against some CPI-M leaders of Nandigram who allegedly threatened villagers who agreed to be the CBI's witnesses in court to depose on the 14 March police firing incident in which 14 people died. In response to the letter, the state government has decided to file cases against the culprits. State home secretary Mr Prasad Ranjan Roy confirmed this at the Writers’ Buildings today. In his letter to the state government, DIG (CBI) Mr Alok Ranjan mentioned three instances of villagers, who had consented to depose for the CBI, being threatened by local CPI-M leaders. It bears recall that the Bhumi Uchched Protirodh Committee (BUPC) repeatedly alleged that CPI-M cadres were threatening their supporters once they had left relief camps and moved back to their homes. Even the CRPF said that police were refusing to register cases against criminals allegedly backed by the CPI-M after the jawans had turned them over to the officers. The letter from the CBI ~ another pointer to the fact that all was not well on the law and order front in Nandigram ~ came as a major embarrassment for the state government. This came at a time when the state government was trying to establish that the local administration was not working under any kind of political pressure. That the state home secretary announced so fast the government’s decision to act, indicated that the it did not want to let its image get tarnished, especially at a time when panchayat polls were approaching.