Calcutta, Dec. 21: Calcutta High Court today issued an interim order restraining a government commission probing the Sainbari killings, in which the CPM’s Nirupam Sen is an accused, from examining the reasons and perpetrators behind the murders.

The court also gave the government six weeks to file affidavits specifying the law that prompted it to appoint a new commission when another one had already carried out a probe and submitted a report.

“Since the Tarapada Mukherjee commission had already conducted a probe into the Sainbari massacre, Justice Arunava Basu will not be allowed to interfere with a matter that has already been probed by a judicial commission,” Justice Dipankar Dutta said in the order.

“The Justice Basu commission will have the power to conduct a probe into other issues, such as the status of the police inquiry, compensation for victims’ family members, etc,” the order added.

The Siddhartha Shankar Ray government had set up the Tarapada Mukherjee commission, which had probed the March 17, 1970, murder of four persons in the hands of alleged CPM activists.

The current Trinamul government set up the Justice Arunava Basu commission in May last year.

Challenging the validity of the government’s decision, Rajat Bandyopadhyay and Durgashib Prasad Roy, two of the accused, had earlier moved the high court.