Home ministry gives cases to NIA sans state nod

NEW DELHI: The home ministry has started invoking a rarely-used provision in the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008 to suo motu transfer terror cases to the NIA without waiting for the approval or concurrence of the state government concerned.

In May, the ministry used the clause 6(5) of the NIA Act to suo motu transfer two cases to the NIA – an ambush on the Indian Army personnel by NSCN (IM) cadres in Arunachal Pradesh causing death of three Army men in April and firing by NSCN (K) cadres in Nagaland that left three Assam Rifles men injured in March.

“The idea is to save time and transfer such cases with grave security considerations immediately to NIA for an expeditious probe rather than wait for the state to send a request for the same,” a home ministry official told.

Before this, the ministry had used the clause to transfer the Burdwan blast case to the NIA in October last year without waiting for a recommendation from West Bengal to do so.

This marks a shift from the practice under the previous UPA government, which used this provision only once, to transfer the probe into the murder of right-wing activist Sunil Joshi from the Madhya Pradesh Police to the NIA.

Officials said states invariably delay transferring cases to the NIA, causing problems in nabbing culprits in the unsolved cases.