NIA fails to file charge sheet

The Naional Investigation Agency (NIA) was unable to file the charge sheet in the Bardhaman blast case here on Friday as signatures of some concerned officials were yet to be obtained.

“The charge sheet is in the final stages of preparation. As we are yet to get some signatures, we did not file it on Friday,” NIA counsel Sanjay Bardhan told The Hindu .

He pointed out that under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, the time limit for filing the charge sheet was 100 days which could be extended up to 180 days.

“If you take the date of incident (October 2, 2014), we have time till March 31.

But we will submit the charge sheet within the stipulated time, added Mr. Bardhan. Eighteen persons have been arrested in the case so far including a number of suspected Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) operators.

The human rights organizations, however, claimed that the arrested individuals are “not connected” with the incident. Recently, Prisoners Release Committee, an organization, has published a report challenging the investigation procedure.