Sitalkuchi firing: HC asks Centre & state to file affidavits

kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Monday directed the Centre and the state to file an affidavit in connection with the firing incident at Sitalkuchi during the last state Assembly polls, in which four persons died. The next hearing is on February 28.

A Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj, heard the case.

Senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, appearing for one the petitioners, sought the Court's leave to file an exhaustive exception to the status report filed by the state government.

Advocate Sayen Chattopadhyay, appearing for another petitioner, submitted before the bench that the status report filed by the State government does not disclose the steps that had been taken pertaining to the investigation of the alleged murder of deceased Anand Burman, who was reportedly shot by CISF personnel.

Pertinently, a preliminary objection to the maintainability of the petitions was raised by Additional Solicitor General Y.J Dastoor. He contended that the petitioners reside miles away from the place where the alleged incident took place and thus they had no way of being aware of the details of the alleged incident. The role of CISF in that incident was also questioned.

On April 10 last year, CISF personnel fired several rounds near booth 126 of Jorpatki in Sitalkuchi.