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Kolkata, May 17 (). The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the West Bengal Police has launched a probe into the blast at an illegal firecracker factory in East Midnapore district’s Egra on Tuesday, in which nine people were killed. Questions are being raised as to why relevant sections under the Explosives Act have not been included in the First Information Report.
It is learned that the FIR has sections 188 (unlawful activities), 286 (negligent conduct with explosive substance) and 304 (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as well as sections 24 (penalty for releasing rockets) and West 26 (Penalty for not obtaining license for warehouse or workshop) of the Bengal Fire Service Act.
However, despite the death of nine people, not a single section under the Explosives Act has been included in the FIR. Questions are now being raised whether sections of the Explosives Act have been deliberately kept out with the alleged intention of diluting the seriousness of the matter?
Kaushik Gupta, senior advocate of the Calcutta High Court, told that prima facie it appears quite strange that sections under the Explosives Act were not included in the FIR, which is usually done in case of such blasts.
Gupta said, however, that the exclusion of sections under the Explosives Act does not mean that it cannot be added in future. The investigating agency may incorporate relevant sections at a later stage.
Opposition parties are claiming that the police officers are deliberately trying to downplay the incident to shield ruling party leaders who are allegedly involved in the tragedy.
According to state BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya, whenever such a tragedy occurs, the first step of the state administration is to downplay the incident and the second is to undermine the process of investigation.
The same is happening now and that is why we are demanding a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the matter, he said.
Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress leadership has rejected the allegations and said that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee herself had said that she was ready for an NIA probe into the matter.
SGK/ANM
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