Kolkata, April 28
West Bengal’s ruling Left Front on Thursday asked the Centre to explain why it remained inactive despite having advance information about the massive arms drop in Purulia in 1995. “The latest revelations on the arms drop are further confirmation of the fact that there was a well-planned conspiracy to use violence to destabilise the Left Front at that time,” LF chairman Biman Bose told mediapersons. He was reacting to an interview given by arms drop case prime accused Kim Davy who claimed the arms were dropped to “destabilise” the state government and the then Central Government had played the role of a facilitator. Bose described the arms drop as a “serious assault on India’s sovereignty” and a “diabolical plot against the then Left Front government”.

“Whatever has been said by Kim Davy, a prime accused in the case, and Peter Bleach, who was sentenced in the case, show that the arms drop for the Ananda Margis was planned through an international network and the target was the Left Front government. It was known at that time that the British intelligence had alerted the Indian government about the arms drop. Yet, the Central Government failed to inform the West Bengal government about the matter in time.

”The Centre should explain why it failed to act on the information given by the British intelligence?” Bose alleged 22 MPs had signed a letter seeking lowering of charges against the accused, including Peter Bleach and five Latvians. “Four Congress MPs were signatories,” he claimed.

Bose, using the Davy interview transcript, accused Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s premier intelligence agency, of jeopardising the security of the country.

“Davy claims that the RAW had put off all radars for 48 hours to facilitate the arms drop. Can you imagine that? It is terrible. The time could have been used by international forces to attack our country.” “This is an indication of a bigger conspiracy,” said Bose.

Davy in an interview to a news channel on Thursday made startling revelations about the controversy, claiming that the then Central Government and RAW facilitated the arms dropping as well as arranged for his disappearance from the country.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee asked the Congress why the Central Government, then run by the party, had allowed Davy to flee the country. “Why did you allow him to escape? Why did they not try to stop him?” he asked while addressing a public meeting at Dankuni in Hooghly district.

Another Left Front partner, Communist Party of India, demanded that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government order a thorough probe into the whole issue. — PTI