Chennai: The Madras high court has ordered notice on a PIL, which sought direction to the authorities to transfer the Central Station bomb blast case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and direct the Indian Railways to pay a solatium of Rs 25 lakh to the family members of the blast victim, P. Swathi.
A division bench, comprising Justices Aruna Jagadeesan and S. Vaidyanathan, before whom the petition came up for hearing on Wednesday, has ordered notices to the authorities and adjourned the matter after vacation. In the petition, M. Durai Selvan, an advocate in the high court, submitted that computer engineer Swathi died and many others sustained injuries in the twin bomb blasts at Chennai Central Railway station on May 1, the terror attack unleashed in the Guwahati Express in the station shortly before the Lok Sabha poll.
The explosions took place on a day when the then BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, was scheduled to address public meetings in the southern parts of Andhra Pradesh. Such terror strikes, posing a threat to the security, integrity and sovereignty of the nation, must be investigated by Central investigating agencies as per the National Investigating Agency Act 2008, the petitioner said. However, the State government had transferred the case to the CB-CID. The CB-CID, which was already burdened with a number of cases, including several high profile ones, was not competent to probe terror-related cases, he added.
