Dinhata/Calcutta, Feb. 9: Jalpaiguri divisional commissioner Biharilal Meena today gave a clean chit to Dinhata sub-divisional officer Debabrata Chakraborty, who had ordered police to open fire on Forward Bloc protesters on Tuesday.

“The SDO had done the right thing,” Meena said.

The commissioner clarified that CRPF personnel were not involved in the firing as Bloc state secretary Ashok Ghosh had claimed. “The police opened fire, not the CRPF.”

Meena first met district magistrate Rajesh Kumar Sinha in the SDO’s chamber while Chakraborty waited outside. He was summoned a while later when the commissioner questioned him on the firing.

Meena told reporters that those involved in attacking the police and ransacking the SDO’s office would be “brought to book”.

The Bloc today decided at a meeting that none of the seven party leaders, including district secretary Udayan Guha, against whom FIRs have been lodged would surrender.

The police have arrested 40 Bloc supporters and are waiting to handcuff 10 more who are in hospital.