Fact finding team on Posco demands judicial inquiry

--Bomb blast incident at Posco site--

BHUBANESWAR: The Civil Liberty Fact Finding Team (CLFFT), a twelve-member group, who made a visit to the proposed Posco area in Jagatsinghpur district to assess the situation in the wake of escalated violence since the land acquisition process resumed in the area on February 4, has demanded a high-level judicial inquiry into the bomb blast incident.

A national-level fact-finding team consisting of civil liberties, democratic organisations and individuals visited Govindapur and Dhinkia villages of the district on Saturday. After visiting the site, the team briefed the Media persons here on Sunday about the facts they got during their visit. They stated that the blast was not occurred due to bomb making by the villagers, but that was thrown by some groups.

They alleged that the police neither reached the area nor sent any help for taking Laxman Parmanik immediately to the hospital, despite Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samity (PPSS) informing the police immediately after the incident. The police arrived only on the morning of March 3 at the scene of the incident and took charge of the dead bodies, they added.

The team members said the families of the two deceased shared that the police arrived on the midnight of March 3 and asked them to sign a written statement stating that the victims died in the process of making the bomb which they refused to do. When Kusumbati Sahu, sister-in-law of the deceased Narahari Sahu went to register an FIR at the Abhoychandranpur police station on March 3 evening, the police refused to accept the FIR, while the police accepted the FIR was lodged by Ranjan Bardhan on March 4 against the three deceased, the injured Parmanik, Abhay Sahu, Surendra Das and five others of the PPSS, they said.   

Besides the high level judicial enquiry into the bomb blast incident, the team members also demanded immediate withdrawal of the police camp from Gobindpur village as it is contributing to escalating tensions in the area, cessation of the land acquisition process forthwith in the Dhinkia panchayat area including Gobindpur village and compensation on humanitarian grounds to the families of the deceased who were killed in the bomb blast and proper medical help for the injured person.

The members like scientist Meher Engineer, Mainstream Weekly Editor Sumit Chakravartty, Delhi University Retired Professor Dr Manoranjan Mohanty, Pramodini Pradhan and Saroj Mohanty from PUCL and Partho Roy from Sanhati were present at the Press briefing.