The armed camp in Netai from where the firing took place

Jhargram, April 4: The CBI today said the Netai firing had taken place from an armed CPM camp and named 20 party leaders and workers in its chargesheet while ruling out Maoist involvement in the January 7 massacre.

In its chargesheet, submitted to the additional chief judicial magistrate of Jhargram, the investigating agency said the firing had taken place from the house of local CPM leader Rathin Dandapath, which used to double as the armed camp. “We have mentioned in the chargesheet that the firing took place from Dandapath’s house and there was no firing from the opposite side. Also, Maoists were not involved,” a CBI official said.

According to the official, the chargesheet states that the Netai camp was “controlled by the CPM’s local committee in Dharampur”, about 10km from Lalgarh town.

After the firing, the CPM had claimed that Maoists had “instigated” the villagers to protest in front of the camp. The party had said that the cadres holed up in the camp had “panicked” and started firing only after the rebels, who had “mingled” with the crowd, fired at the base.

But the party went on the defensive and chose to keep mum on the issue after chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and other top CPM leaders condemned the firing and said “it should not have happened”.

Of the 20 West Midnapore CPM leaders and workers mentioned in the CBI chargesheet, eight are absconding while 12 have been arrested.

CBI officials said the absconding CPM leaders include Binpur zonal committee secretary Anuj Pandey, Dharampur local committee secretary Dalim Pandey, Lalgarh local committee secretary Joydeb Giri, Belatikri local committee secretary Chandi Karan, district committee member Phullara Mondal and Belatikri local committee member Mohammad Khaliluddin.

The 30-page chargesheet also names Dandapath, from whose house the firing had taken place. The CPM branch committee member, too, is yet to be arrested. The CBI official said the chargesheet had been submitted “within 44 days of Calcutta High Court handing over the case to us”.

The case was handed over to the CBI after the high court found the CID’s progress in the investigation “unsatisfactory”. CBI sources said the 12 persons arrested so far and some of those who are absconding were “present at the spot” at the time of the firing.

“CPM leaders Anuj Pandey and Dalim Pandey were involved in the conspiracy (that led to the firing). We have mentioned in the chargesheet that the CPM cadres were given arms training in the camp. The villagers too were asked to participate in the training. It is this attempt to involve the villagers in the arms training that triggered the protest. The villagers were fired upon when they went to protest (at the camp),” the CBI official said.

CBI lawyer Partha Tapaswi said the agency had “enough evidence” to prove the charges. “Those who are absconding will be arrested. After their arrest, we will submit a supplementary chargesheet. The investigation is still on and we are collecting more evidences. We will produce them in court in due course,” he said.

The charges against the accused persons include murder, assembling with deadly weapons and criminal conspiracy.

According to CBI sources, the chargesheet mentions the presence of another armed CPM camp in Birkarn village, 3km from Netai.

“The chargesheet includes statements by witnesses and findings of doctors who conducted the nine victims’ post-mortems. We have also mentioned the nature of injuries of those who suffered bullet wounds,” the CBI official said.

Dahareswar Sen, a CPM district secretariat member, a chargesheet was “not enough to prove a crime”.