Holding that explosions at Basanti and Malda in West Bengal earlier this year are offenses falling under the NIA Act, the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed the Centre to take a decision on the probe into these blasts based on a report by the state government.
Explosions took place at Malda on April 22 and Basanti on March 28, with one person having died in the latter and leaving several others injured in the first. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice R Bharadwaj said the offenses in both cases fall under the Explosive Substances Act.
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The use of explosive substances falls under scheduled offenses which can be probed by National Investigating Agency. Three petitions were filed by two persons, seeking direction from the state government to hand over the cases to NIA for investigation.
The court directed the inspectors in charge of the police stations under the jurisdiction of which the incidents occurred to hand over a report to the state government within three days. It also instructed the state government to send that report to the Centre within another three days.
The court directed the central government to take a decision on the probe into the two incidents based on the report.
