Dinhata firing : Judicial probe started

 

COOCH BEHAR, April 18: The judicial inquiry commission that was constituted by the state government to conduct inquiry into the 5 February police firing occurred at Dinhata started its work from yesterday. The commission headed by an ex-judge of Calcutta High Court, Mr Justice Narayan Chandra Seal visited the Dinhata Court premises today where the firing was taken place on 5 February.

 

Mr Justice Seal visited Dinhata on Friday morning for 'spot verification'. Earlier, he held a meeting with the district magistrate of Cooch Behar yesterday and inquired into the violence that had claimed lives of five Forward Bloc supporters and one NVF jawan.

 

After his Dinhata visit today, Mr Justice Seal said at Cooch Behar Circuit House that a office of the commission will be set up in Cooch Behar for conducting of the probe because there is no adequate infrastructure in Dinhata. This office is necessary here because all the witnesses are local residents. He however failed to mention any certain date from when the hearing and examining the witnesses will begin because the panchayat election is on the corner. "We will try our best to start the work as early as possible after the elections is over", he assured. At the same time he said that preparing of the report on the commission's findings would depend on the number of witnesses that will appear for hearing before the commission.

 

When contacted, district Forward Bloc secretary Mr Udayan Guha said they are not hopeful enough about the outcome of the commission's probe. Today they visited the place of occurrence only. No one, even not the commission knows when the report of its findings will be prepared and submitted, he opined. "We will not be astonished if the report finds its way to the cold-storage for ever" Mr Guha quipped. []

 

PHOTO : Mr Justice Narayan Chandra Seal talks with reporters at the Circuit House in Cooch Behar on Friday. – DEBASHIS BHAUMIK.