March 19: Former CPM MP Lakshman Seth was interrogated today by the CID. Agency sources said Seth, accused of lighting the Nandigram fuse, spoke very little and replied mostly in monosyllables.

Seth, who was arrested from a Mumbai hideout on Saturday, denied the CID’s charge that he had masterminded the killings of six land protesters in Nandigram during the CPM’s armed recapture of the area in November 2007. Two other CPM leaders arrested with Seth, Amiya Sahoo and Ashok Guria, were also interrogated at the CID headquarters in Bhawani Bhavan.

“Seth denied any involvement in the massacre and told us he had no clue about the murders,” a CID officer said.

CID sources said Seth had allegedly held a meeting with 16 CPM leaders at a Khejuri party office on November 4, 2007, to chalk out the plan of the attack on Bhumi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee members in Nandigram.

The wives of the six victims today requested the Haldia court bar association that no lawyer represent Seth, Sahoo and Guria. Thirty-seven lawyers gave it in writing that they would not take up the case.

The Haldia SDO has clamped prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC in and around Hadia court, where Seth will be produced tomorrow.