Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday dismissed two Public Interest Litigations (PILs) seeking a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe in the illegal firecracker unit blast at Duttapukur in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district.
While one PIL was filed by Leader of Opposition in state Assembly Suvendu Adhikari, state BJP leader Rajarshi Lahiri had filed the other.
Dismissing both the PILs, a division bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya, said that an investigation in the matter will be carried out by the state police only.
The bench observed that since the investigation is at a nascent stage, the state police can go ahead with the investigation process and there is no requirement for handing over the investigation to any central agency at this moment.
However, it gave liberty to the petitioners to approach the court if they have any fresh information in the matter. So far, nine persons have been reportedly killed in the blast on Sunday morning and leaving several others injured.
Adhikari has accused the police administration of understating the death figure. He has also accused that the operators of the illegal firecracker entity had close contacts with the ruling Trinamool Congress.
The ruling party leadership, however, had since the beginning accused the opposition parties of politicising an “accident.” The National Commission of Child Rights (NCRC) has already sought a report from the state government on the details of the minors killed in the blast.
Among the nine killed, two victims were reported to be minors.
They are Ronie Seikh (16) and Masum Sheikh (17).
–IANS