West Bengal Approaches Supreme Court Against Calcutta HC Order For NIA Probe Into Ram Navami Violence

The Supreme Court on Thursday heard the petition filed by the State of West Bengal against the order passed by the Calcutta High Court to transfer the investigation in the cases related to Ram Navami violence to the National Investigation Agency.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha and Justice JB Pardiwala decided to post the matter tomorrow for further hearing.

Senior Advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the State Government, said that the NIA Act cannot be invoked for ordinary cases of violence unless it is affecting the security of the country or sovereignty.

The bench however pointed out that the Explosive Substances Act 1908 is a scheduled offence in the NIA Act and the High Court has held that the police has deliberately omitted to invoke this statute in the FIRs registered over the violence.

Singhvi asserted that there is no instance of using any explosives so as to invoke Explosive Substances Act. "There was not a single bomb. No usage of that", Singhvi said. He contended that the High Court passed the order in a politically motivated PIL filed by the leader of opposition Suvendhu Adhikari. He requested for an urgent hearing saying that the State police officers are being called by the NIA.

Senior Advocate PS Patwalia, appearing for Adhikari, opposed the plea for stay of the HC order. The bench ultimately decided to hear the matter tomorrow.

The impugned order was passed by a bench of Acting Chief Justice T. S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya on April 27 after observing that there was rampant use of explosives by miscreants against the processions carried out on Ram Navami.

The High Court observed that prima facie, there had been a deliberate attempt on the part of the concerned police not to register any offence under the provisions of the Explosives Substances Act "fighting shy of resorting to the procedure required to be complied with under Section 6(1) of the NIA Act".

The Court also observed that during the violence, the mob became furious and assaulted the police with bamboo sticks and threw bricks on the police and also damaged one government vehicle and thereafter set fire to another vehicle and when mild force was used to disperse the mob, they became more furious and again started to assault police personnel with bamboo sticks, iron rods, stones, bricks, swords, displaying firearms with a view to kill police personnel, however, in the seizure list, only glass bottles and sticks and other weapons found mention.