The Supreme Court today pulled up West Bengal government for opposing a CBI probe into the killing of nine people at Netai village near Maoist-hit Lalgarh allegedly by CPI-M members and sought the communication exchanged between Home Minister P Chidambaram and Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya on the issue.

"It is very unfortunate that West Bengal government can't accept the authority of the highest judicial court and the High Court," a Bench comprising Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly said while refusing to stay the Calcutta High Court order directing a CBI probe into the incident.

The Bench, which made these remarks repeatedly, asked the state government to submit "all correspondence between the Home Minister and the Chief Minister following Netai killings" before it by March 3.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for West Bengal government, contended there were "political overtones" in the orders of the High Court directing the case to be handed over to CBI.

West Bengal government has challenged the February 18 order of the Calcutta High Court directing it to hand over to CBI the investigation into the January 7 killing of nine people at Netai village near Lalgarh, observing that the CID was unable to conduct an impartial probe owing to alleged involvement of CPI-M members and leaders

The high court had directed CID to hand over the papers of the case and the two accused in its custody to CBI forthwith stating it (CID) has not been able to carry on with the investigation impartially.

The High Court had also directed the CID to cooperate with and assist the central agency as and when required.

The High Court had decided to monitor the progress of investigation into the case.

The Division Bench of the High Court was unhappy as the CID has not been able to progress beyond a point in arresting all the accused who had fired on innocent villagers and those who were involved in setting up the armed camp in the house of a CPI-M leader at Netai.

The bench had said it has no hesitation to come to the conclusion that the CID was not being able to take the investigation beyond this point as the suspects are members and leaders of the ruling party.

Lalgarh, in which Netai village is situated, had earlier been a Maoist hotbed but was later reclaimed by CPI-M which has allegedly set up several armed camps there.

Before passing the order, the High Court had gone through the case diary in the matter and observed that the CID had not been able to progress after the arrest of two accused -- CPI-M worker Aswini Chalak and Abani Singh, a member of CPI-M's Lalgarh local committee.