The resurrection of the 16-year-old Purulia arms drop case on Thursday morning courtesy the Times Now telecast of interviews with accused Kim Davy and Peter Bleach had the CPI(M) leaders crying foul.
“The Purulia arms drop took place in 1995, and in 1996 Lok Sabha and West Bengal elections took place simultaneously. Therefore, the motive is clear. It is to destabilise the state government by provoking violence,” said CPI(M) central committee member Nilotpal Basu. Davy said the Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW), a section of Indian MPs and even the PMO were aware of the plan.
Government sources denied the claim saying, if it was an official operation, the CBI wouldn’t have been fighting in Denmark for Davy’s extradition. Davy is making these claims to avoid extradition, they said.
CPI(M) West Bengal secretary and Left Front chairman Biman Bose said, Davy’s disclosure proved the Left Front’s long-term allegations that groups with vested interests, both from India and abroad, have repeatedly tried to destabilise the Left Front government in West Bengal. In a December 2009 expose, HT reported that the arms cache was purchased on the orders of a member of the office of then prime minister of Bangladesh, Begum Khaleda Zia, according to two end-user certificates — mandatory for international arms deals —accessed by HT.
Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said at an election rally in Hooghly district, “The government knew everything. When I went to the Centre a week after the incident, they said they knew.” The CPI(M) politburo in a statement on Thursday said, the British intelligence MI5 had alerted the Indian government about the arms drop, yet the centre failed to inform the West Bengal government. “It is imperative that the centre explain why it failed to act on the information and how Davy escaped,” it said.
{{/usCountry}}Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said at an election rally in Hooghly district, “The government knew everything. When I went to the Centre a week after the incident, they said they knew.” The CPI(M) politburo in a statement on Thursday said, the British intelligence MI5 had alerted the Indian government about the arms drop, yet the centre failed to inform the West Bengal government. “It is imperative that the centre explain why it failed to act on the information and how Davy escaped,” it said.
{{/usCountry}}Congress and Trinamool Congress leaders pointed to the timing. “It is to be noted that the controversy has been raised at a time when three phases of polling are over and the Left Front is staring at a defeat,” said TMC’s Subrata Mukherjee. The story so far
Former IB director Ajit Doval said, “Davy’s assertions are motivated. It is atrocious to think that any Indian government will be a party to a plan to get illegal weapons from criminal sources and use against innocent citizens.”