A police vehicle after it was attacked by villagers during NIA’s investigation into the 2022 Bhupatinagar blast case, in Purba Medinipur district, on April 6, 2024.
| Photo Credit: PTI
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has in the first week of July filed a charge sheet in connection with Bhupatinagar blast at Purba Medinipur in West Bengal and stated that investigation has exposed “criminal conspiracy involving supply of explosives for making bombs to spread terror and violence in the region”.
“The NIA, which had taken over the investigation from the State police on June 4, 2023 had charge-sheeted the accused various sections of IPC and ES Act (The Explosive Substances Act),” a press statement by the NIA said.
The blast at Bhupatinagar in Purba Medinipur district had claimed three lives in December 2022.
On April 6, 2024 a team of NIA was attacked by locals in Bhupatinagar during an early morning raid in connection with investigation in the case involving a bomb blast that claimed three lives. An NIA officer had sustained injuries in the attack and a press statement by the NIA said that it had arrested Balai Charan Maity and Manobrata Jana, “amid stiff resistance from an unruly crowd in the state’s East Medinipur district”.
The development in the middle of the Lok Sabha polls had sparked strong reactions in political circles.
Also read | NIA says no mala fide intent in action in Bhupatinagar blast case, attack on its team ‘unprovoked’
The NIA’s chargesheet filed in the case before the Special Court, Kolkata on July 4 names three deceased – Raj Kumar Manna, Biswajit Gayen and Buddhadeb Manna – and three others, identified as Panchanan Ghorai, Manobrata Jana and Balai Charan Maity as accused. “Of the latter three, first is out on bail and the other two are in judicial custody,” the NIA statement said.
According to the NIA, the six chargesheeted accused “were found to be actively involved in the criminal conspiracy related to the bomb blast which took place at village Naruabila 2nd December 2022”.
Over the past few years, the NIA has been handed over investigation of a number of cases involving bomb blast. Crude bomb blasts have been reported in various parts of West Bengal often during political violence raising questions on the law and order situation.
