Thaindian News

New Delhi/Kolkata, May 24 (IANS) The Congress Tuesday demanded a detailed inquiry into the recovery of arms, including one looted after an attack on a paramilitary force camp last year, near a Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) in West Bengal. It was “a serious issue”, the party said.

“If the needle of suspicion points to the communist parties, it is a serious issue,” Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said in New Delhi.

He said recovery of weapons looted from the camp of Eastern Frontier Rifles in Silda area of West Midnapore February last year raises serious questions.

“It raises serious questions. There should be a detailed inquiry,” Tewari said.

In Kolkata, Congress West Bengal chief Manas Bhuniya accused former Left Front chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee of deliberately crippling the administration to allow stockpiling of illegal arms in the state.

“We strictly condemn the Enayetpur incident. It can be concluded that the former state home minister and the chief minister (Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee) colluded with the miscreants and crippled the administration to facilitate these kind of activities.”

Besides an INSAS (Indian Small Arms Assault) rifle looted from the EFR Silda camp after the attack on it last year, an AK56 rifle, nine other rifles, 22 pipe guns and 36 rounds of ammunition were recovered from a field, some 1.5 km from CPI-M’s Enayetpur party office.

“We are grateful to the chief minister (Mamata Banerjee) for ordering a probe into the matter by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID),” said Bhuniya.

“Now that a fresh investigation is being done, if the current probe report varies from the earlier report, then I would request the chief minister to take action against those officers.”

As many as 24 troopers of the EFR, a state paramilitary force, were killed in the attack on the Silda camp Feb 15, 2010. A large cache of arms was also looted.

The state police’s CID started a fresh probe into the Silda attack Monday.