SC seeks CBI view on GJM's plea for murder trial transfer

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court sought the CBI's response on a petition filed by Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) general secretary Roshan Giri requesting transfer of his trial in Madan Tamang murder case from West Bengal to Sikkim.
Giri's counsel, senior advocate P S Patwalia, and West Bengal's counsel, senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee, traded charges before a bench of Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswar Rao.While Patwalia said that given the agitation for a separate state by the GJM, his client's trial in Kolkata was not safe as the Trinamool Congress government had alleged that money was being pumped from Nepal to sustain the agitation.
Given the sparring, the bench, which had earlier suggested video conferencing for continuation of the trial in Kolkata, issued notice to the CBI and asked the agency to give its view on fea sibility and desirability of acceding to Giri's request.
Giri has been charged with `criminal conspiracy for murder' along with other GJM leaders in the killing of All India Gorkha League (AIGL) president Madan Tamang in 2010.
The CBI has indicted the entire top leadership of the GJM for the murder. Besides Giri, GJM president Bimal Gurung is among the nine top leaders named in the chargesheet. Gurung, his wife Asha and several senior leaders of the hill outfit had surrendered before a Darjeeling court which had granted them bail in the murder case.
Mamata offers talks to GJM again
Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee repeated her offer of talks to resolve the Darjeeling impasse a couple of hours before Gorkhaland Janmukti Morcha's deadline for central intervention ended at 6 pm on Tuesday.However, this time, the offer was without the precondition that violence should end first.
Coming a day before GJM has threatened to ramp up its violent stir for a separate Gorkhaland state, Mamata's offer, made in the assembly, may set the stage for a desperate bid to end the indefinite shutdown of the Hills that started on June 15 and completed 55 days on Tuesday.