Clamour for NIA probe grows

While the investigators are looking for hard evidence to further substantiate this initial finding, this totally new angle to the crime lends more weight to a demand for an investigation by a central agency that will have greater and better reach in terms of its resources, and networks to take forward the investigation, say officials.

Top BSF sources in Kolkata confirmed that one of Bangladesh Border Guards’ recurring complaints has been the supply of arms and explosives from West Bengal to Bangladesh through clandestine routes. Two days after the Burdwan blast, a similar blast took place in Englishbazar in Malda in which a person was grievously injured. Located close to the Bangaldesh border, these bombs too, made in empty cricket deuce ball shells, have found their passage to the neighbouring country, it was said.

However, state government officials admitted on Wednesday that the opinion is split among the top bureaucrats of the state over a NIA investigation, with one section clearly favouring a NIA investigation. But the decision not to allow NIA probe so far has not merely been an administrative one but largely a political one, say the officials. With mounting pressure and growing evidence of a Bangladeshi angle to the episode the state may finally have to settle for a central agency investigation, the officials added.

State Home Secretary Basudeb Banerjee however denied any such opposition and said the central agencies are being contacted wherever necessary.

He refuted charges that evidence was destroyed by exploding the seized bombs from the Burdwan house. He said it was a part of the standard operating procedure and was done only after the central forensic experts collected evidence and samples, he added.