Calcutta HC denies bail to Netai killings accused

The Calcutta High Court today denied bail to five suspected CPI(M) activists allegedly involved in gunning down nine villagers of Netai in Paschim Medinipur district over six years ago.
A division bench of justices Ashim Kumar Roy and S Prasad denied bail to the five - Umesh Pandey, Dalim Pandey, Phullora Mondal, Chandi Karan and Mohd Khalilulla on the CBI's plea that enlarging them on bail at this juncture would not be in the interest of the case.
The five, presently lodged in the district jail along with their 15 other accomplices, had moved the court for bail saying they have been in the custody for long, while there had been little progress in the trial of the case.

CBI counsel Ashraf Ali, however, opposed their plea saying the trial of the case has been stayed by the Supreme Court and enlarging the accused on the bail at this juncture would not be in the interest of the case after the apex court allows the trial.
After hearing the two sides, the bench turned down the bail pleas.
The incident dates back to January 7, 2011 when the nine villagers, said to be sympathisers of non-Left parties, were shot dead in indiscriminate firings from the house of a local CPI(M) leader Rathin Dandapat.

Following the killings, the then Left Front government of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had ordered a CID probe, but on a plea by the Calcutta High Court Bar Association, the state's high court had ordered a CBI probe on February 18, 2011.

The CBI probe had been ordered on the bar's fear that the state investigative agency may not conduct a fair probe due to the alleged role of the CPI(M) activists in the killings.
A total of 20 persons were accused in the case, of whom nine were arrested within weeks after the crime while the rest kept evading the arrest till the CBI filed its charge sheet in the Jhargram sub-divisional court in 2014.
All the 11 absconders later surrendered and are in the judicial custody along with the nine others.