JOIN USThe Centre has done well to hand over the investigation into the blast at a house in Burdwan district in West Bengal to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). The NIA has more expertise and is better equipped to investigate a bomb blast, especially one that reveals the hand of a cross-border terrorist network that has ramifications for India’s national security. The manner in which the West Bengal police were dealing with the probe since October 2 when the blast occurred was shoddy and incompetent. They are said to have destroyed key evidence. Whether they did so deliberately or out of sheer ineptitude is unclear at the moment.
However, their attempt at downplaying the gravity of the blast by describing it as a cylinder explosion even as police were detonating the first lot of bombs seized from the blast site suggests that questionable motivations were at play. There are suspicions that police were trying to cover up the involvement of a local Trinamool Congress leader. So reluctant were they to hand over the probe to the NIA that they dragged their feet on slapping charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for almost a week.
The blast at Burdwan is not a minor issue. A bomb went off accidentally while it was being assembled in a house that is believed to be a bomb-making facility for the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, a terror organisation that is banned in India. Explosives and pamphlets with terrorist propaganda have been found there. A few people have been arrested but what has emerged so far may only be a tip of the iceberg. From its performance in the days after the blast, it was evident that the West Bengal police would not measure up to the challenge at hand. Probing terrorism is always difficult and in this case, the hands of the police were tied. The West Bengal police could not withstand the TMC pressure. In the circumstances, the decision to hand over the investigation to the NIA was correct.
But will the NIA be able to hold off BJP interference? The BJP’s West Bengal unit will be keen to use the blast probe to malign the TMC and weaken it. It will be tempted to influence the NIA’s investigation. This will make the NIA’s already tough task all the more challenging. Terror networks are hard to unearth especially when they are entangled with powerful politicians, police and political agendas. The NIA must be allowed to do its job without any meddling.