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Congress behind selective leakage of Nandigram report : CPI(M)

	December 24, 2007

Reports say that there were several voices at the central committee meeting against alleged selective leakage of the CBI report on Nandigram by functionaries close to the Congress. West Bengal Chief Minister Budhadeb Bhattacharjee who took part in the central committee meeting, reportedly termed the episode as part of a conspiracy to add fuel to the fire.

He described the media reports on the CBI’s investigation of the March 14 violence in Nandigram as bogus. Sitraram Yechury described the reports in

the media as a clear case of selective leakage.



CBI files rape cases against CPI(M) activists in Nandigram



The CBI has filed four fresh cases against Nandigram CPI(M) leaders and police officials for allegedly raping women and holding them hostage in the village. According to the FIR, CPI(M) activists forcibly entered the house of a woman on March 14. They allegedly raped three women over two days and laid siege to their house.



The activists then demanded money from the victims for lifting the siege. The activists left only after the mother paid Rs. 1,000. This case is also mentioned

in the status report filed by the CBI before the Calcutta High Court. The other three cases have been registered

against police officials and unknown persons for looting. One case relates to the failure of a policeman to register a case even after a victim alleged rape by

CPI(M) goons on March 15.



In its interim report to Calcutta High Court, the CBI said party activists had threatened witnesses to prevent them from deposing before the agency and

hampered investigations.



This was one of the reasons the CBI cited while

asking for more time to investigate the police firing

that left 14 dead and many injured. The CBI got two

months to file its final report. It has to be submitted by

February 15.



The agency said a witness who had recorded his

statement before the CBI was beaten up mercilessly

by CPI(M) activists. It also said there was no evidence

so far to suggest that the mob had thrown petrol bombs

at the police as they entered Nandigram on March 14.



Even if the villagers had thrown bricks and

bombs, a CBI official said, they were so far away that

the missiles could not have reached the police.



The police had claimed that they fired only 57

bullets that day. But the CBI report said: “The number

of injuries appear to indicate that more rounds were

fired than the number claimed by the police.”



Anti-CPI(M) front to be formed



Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has

said that a secular, progressive and democratic anti-

CPI(M) front in West Bengal will be formed on Dec.



30. The Front’s common minimum programme and

name of the constituents will be announced at that

time.

Trinamul Congress general secretary Partha

Chatterjee said in Kolkata on Dec. 21, “Left parties

other than the CPI(M) have been urged to join the front.

The Congress too is welcome to be part of it but it

appears to be buying time,” he said.



“The Trinamul severing ties with the Bharatiya

Janata Party and the National Democratic Alliance is

an essential pre-requisite for the Congress joining any

anti-Left Front,” said Manas Bhunia, PCC general

secretary and leader of the Congress Legislature Party.



Mamata Banerjee earlier appealed to parties in

the Left Front, which expressed their misgivings over

some recent decisions of the State government, to join

the proposed combine. But the Trinamul leadership

now seems to have given up the idea.



“The front is to be set up at the State-level and

the question of whether its constituents belong to the

United Progressive Alliance or the NDA is irrelevant,”

Chatterjee said.



The Trinamul is an NDA constituent but is at

odds with the BJP State unit.