Calcutta, Jan. 10: The Calcutta High Court Bar Association today moved a public interest litigation demanding a CBI probe into the Netai firing.

The association’s petition, which will be heard tomorrow, also seeks compensation for those injured and the kin of the dead.

Admitting the PIL, a division bench of Chief Justice J.N. Patel and Justice A.K. Roy asked the CID, which is investigating the incident, to produce the case dairy on the firing.

Appearing for the Union government, which had been made a respondent by the petitioners, additional solicitor-general Farooque M. Razzak supported the bar association’s move. “If the court wants to hand over the case to the CBI, it should hand it over immediately. Any delay in doing so will affect the investigation and increase chances of tampering with the evidence,” he said.

State advocate-general Balai Ray said he had no objection if the court handed the case to the CBI. The association has asked for Rs 25 lakh to the next of kin of each of the dead and Rs 10 lakh to the injured.

Moving the litigation, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, association vice-president, told the court that he had made governor M.K. Narayanan and Union home minister P. Chidambaram, parties to the case.

After going through the FIR, the chief justice told the attorney-general: “The incident had taken place at 9.30am. But the FIR was lodged at 8.30pm. The distance of Lalgarh police station from Netai is only 3.5km. Why was there such a delay?”

After the March 14, 2007, Nandigram police firing, the bar association had moved a similar petition demanding a CBI probe and compensation for victims.

Lawyer petitions SC

A Calcutta-based lawyer today filed a PIL in the Supreme Court on the violence in Netai. The petition, filed by Joydeep Mukherjee, seeks a court direction calling for intervention of the Centre in bringing the situation in Bengal under control. The petition will be heard on Wednesday.