Explosives frequently used in religious, political processions, police fail to investigate: Calcutta HC

The Calcutta High Court observed that the violence and use of explosives have become so frequent in religious and political processions. The court transferred the probe to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the recent violence that broke during the Ram Navami celebrations in Howrah and Dalkoha districts of West Bengal.
A division bench of Acting Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya noted that twelve such violent incidents involving explosives and lethal weapons have occurred in West Bengal since April 2021.
“The use of explosives substances, hurling of bombs during processions, rallies and religious ceremonies have been occurring and recurring regularly and in all such cases investigation has been transferred to NIA,” the bench observed.
The bench further said that considering the failure of the state police to properly investigate the violence instances, the probe in eight similar cases have been transferred to the NIA.
“Probably the state police having been directed by this Court in more than 8 orders to transfer the matter to the NIA, in the present incidents they have under played the true state of affairs which in our view should not be permitted,” the bench underscored.
It found that the police deliberately did not register any offence under the provisions of the Explosives Substances Act in regard with the present incident.
The incident involved the use of acid bottles as per the mentions by some witnesses.
The court ruled that as the offence committed was under the scheduled act, the State Police should have necessarily sought NIA intervention.
The bench also noted that there was extensive property damage and that several people were seriously injured during the incident. However, the police report stated that glass bottles, sticks, and other weapons were seized.

As a result, there is serious doubt about the seizure report when there was a specific complaint made on April 3, 2023 that bombs were thrown and people were severely injured.