New Delhi, Oct. 25: The Supreme Court today asked the CBI to inform by Wednesday whether it would share the Nandigram firing probe report with the Bengal government.

The state government had challenged in the Supreme Court a Calcutta High Court order asking the CBI to probe the death of 14 land protesters in police firing in Nandigram on March 14, 2007.

The apex court had refused to stay the CBI probe but restrained the agency from prosecuting any police officer on the basis of the report.

After submitting its report to Calcutta High Court, the CBI had moved the apex court, requesting that it be allowed to prosecute accused police officers. The Bengal government has opposed the plea.

Today, senior counsel K.K. Venugopal, appearing for the state government, sought a copy of the CBI report. “We must at least know who they are prosecuting and on what charges,” he said.

CBI counsel P.P. Malhotra argued that under the criminal procedure code, the accused could get a copy of the report only after a chargesheet is filed.

But the bench, headed by Justice R.V. Raveendran, did not take kindly to the argument. “We only said submit a report to the high court. We never said do it in a sealed cover and not give anybody a copy of the report,” Justice Raveendran said.

“Let’s draw a line (of distinction) here between the police officers (accused in the firing) and the Bengal government,” he added.

He then asked the CBI counsel to find out from the agency whether it was willing to share the report with the state government. “Maybe they (the state government) will change their mind (on not prosecuting the officers) once they see the report,” the judge said.