Kolkata, April 29 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Friday sought a judicial inquiry into the sensational arms drop case in Purulia in 1995.
‘In view of the gravity of the incident and for the sake of internal security, I demand a judicial probe regarding this issue,’ Bhattacharjee said in a statement.
‘On the midnight of Dec 17, 1995, a large amount of arms and ammunition was dropped in Purulia. The arms were meant for Ananda Margis. The alert from the union home ministry came to state home ministry came days after the arms were dropped in Purulia,’ he said.
According to the chief minister, an ‘alert note’ was sent Dec 12 from New Delhi through surface post. ‘No advance message on emergency basis was sent to the state government through telegrams,’ said Bhattacharjee.
Bhattacharjee’s statement came a day after the prime accused in the case, Niels Christian Nielsen alias Kim Davy, claimed that the arms were dropped to ‘destabilise’ the state government and that New Delhi had facilitated the operation.
In a separate statement, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) sought a judicial enquiry by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court into the circumstances of the arms drop to uncover the network responsible.
It also called for the interrogation of jailed former MP Pappu Yadav, who Kim Davy said had assisted him in the arms drop.
‘The trail by which Kim Davy escaped from the country should be uncovered and the persons responsible brought to book,’ it said.
The CPI-M statement added: ‘For more than a decade Kim Davy has been living in Denmark and the central government has been tardy in getting him extradited.
‘Kim Davy has given specific details of how he had escaped from the Mumbai airport and reached Nepal. He has named Pappu Yadav, who was then an MP, as the person who assisted him.
‘It should be noted that the same Pappu Yadav is in jail serving a life sentence for the murder of CPI-M legislator Ajit Sarkar.
‘Both Bleach and Kim Davy have made charges of connivance by certain Indian authorities in the airdrop plan and the cover up later.
‘All this information necessitates looking at the Purulia airdrop in a fresh light.’
