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TN opposes CBI probe into blasts

The Tamil Nadu government today submitted before the Madras high court that there was no need to entrust the investigation into the series of bomb blasts in the state, including Coimbatore, to the Central Bureau of Investigation as significant progress had already been achieved by the state police.

However, the government would not hesitate to seek the CBI's services whenever the need arises, it said in the counter-affidavit filed in the high court. This was in reply to the petition filed by former chief minister J Jayalalitha, seeking to transfer the investigation into the blasts to the central agency.

The government said it had appointed Justice P R Gokulakrishnan as the one-man commission to probe the circumstances leading to the February 14 bomb blasts in Coimbatore and subsequent disturbances including damage to public and private properties.

When the government requested the CBI to take up investigation of the Melavalu incident in Madurai on October 31 last, the agency had declined it on grounds of lack of manpower and resources, the affidavit said. The CBI director had recently stated that he required the services of state police officers for investigations.

It said inter-state and international ramifications of the bomb blasts were being effectively probed by the Special Investigating Team under an inspector general of police, who has long experience in the CBI and who had worked in close coordination with the central and international intelligence agencies.

It was incorrect to say that the bomb culture in the state was of recent origin. On the contrary, there were over 300 incidents of bomb blasts between 1991 and 1996 during the tenure of Jayalalitha, the affidavit added.

UNI

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