Police hushing up Pingla blast at Mamata's orders: CPI-M

Targeting Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the Pingla killer blast, the CPI-M on Friday alleged that police and the administration were trying to hush-up the incident under her express orders.

"You can see the reaction of people, their anger. Police and the administration could not have played the role they are playing without the express orders of the chief minister.

"Police are being used from the highest quarter to hush up the incident," said Communist Party of India-Marxist state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra, who went to the blast spot at Brahmanbar village in West Midnapore district and spoke to the locals and witnesses.

Describing Banerjee's comments that it was a cracker making unit as a "cock and bull story", Mishra said: "Police are singing according to the chief minister's directive."

As people crowded around Mishra, Police cordoned off the area close to the spot - where stood the house that was ripped off by the explosion on Wednesday night - to prevent the people from coming near it.

The villagers, angry over the loss of so many lives, demanded a proper probe and punishment of the guilty. Twelve people have died in the explosion so far.

Mishra said nobody believed the state government which was trying to pass off the razed house as a firecracker manufacturing unit, even though actually it was used to make bombs.

"The ruling party leaders are involved. Those who were running the bomb factory for long were anti-socials. The locals have repeatedly complained against the factory. But whenever somebody dared to protest, he was threatened. Even now, people are being intimidated to keep their mouth shut."

Mishra, also the leader of the opposition in the assembly, repeated the demand for a court monitored probe into the incident.

"We don't have confidence on the state probe agencies. Whoever conducts the probe, it must be monitored by the court," he said.

Following the chief minister's orders, the Criminal Investigation Department of police is probing the blast. But Mishra ridiculed the CID, calling it "nothing but the chief minister's intelligence agency".