New Delhi, May 27: The Delhi High Court today issued a notice to the CBI on a petition alleging that the Union Home Ministry and the governments of Bihar and West Bengal did not take proper action to stop the 1995 armsdrop in Purulia despite having prior information of the same. While issuing the notice, a division bench of Justice Usha Mehra and Justice P Nandrajog asked CBI to file its reply by September 22 to the petitioner's plea for direction to the agency to present an action taken report on the information passed on by him to it on September 9 last year. The petitioner D K Prahladaka submitted a copy of purported letter written by the then joint secretary (home) Shashi Prakash to the then chief secretary of West Bengal N Krishnakurthy on December 12, 1995, only five days before huge consignments of arms were dropped, informing the latter about possible armsdrop meant for an insurgent group opposed to the CPM government in West Bengal. He sought inquiry into the matter and prosecution of the "guilty public servants". When the CBI filed its chargesheet in the case on March 20, 1996, "there was no whisper in the chargesheet that the Indian authorities had prior information of designs of commission of offences by dropping weapons in Indian territory," Prahaladka, who has filed mercy petitions on behalf of peter bleach, a British national and one of the convicts, alleged.
The petitioner has also filed another petition seeking extradition of Danish national and one of the main accused Kim Davy in the case.
Bureau Report