After the appointment of justice Chanda as the permanent judge in Calcutta HC, the High Court on Thursday ordered a CBI investigation into all alleged cases of murder, rape and unnatural deaths in the state as flagged by a committee whose members were nominated by the NHRC chairperson, this decision of the High Court will haunt the West Bengal CM for days as Mamata’s Khela Hobe post-election violence is about to blow in her own face.
Read more: Mamata fears Justice Kaushik Chanda. Justice Kaushik Chanda is now in Kolkata High Court
The bench said a Special Investigation Team (SIT) will be made for all other cases referred to in the report of the committee. It said the SIT will be headed by senior IPS officers of Bengal cadre: Suman Bala Sahoo and its other members will be Soumen Mitra and Ranveer Kumar.
Both the CBI and the special probe team will have to submit their reports within six weeks. The five-member bench of Chief Justice includes (Acting) Rajesh Bindal, Justices I P Mukerji, Harish Tandon, Soumen Sen and Subrata Talukdar, said: “such types of incidents, even if isolated, are not good for healthy democracy”.
Sources revealed, the Investigating officers will be visiting West Bengal and the violence-affected areas soon. 25 officers have been selected for the mission and divided into four teams which will be headed by senior officers of the rank of Joint Directors. The teams include a Deputy Inspector General, a Senior Superintendent of Police and three Superintendent Police.
India Today reported that Joint Directors of CBI – Mr Anurag, Sampat Meena, Vineet Vinayak and Ramnish – will be heading the four teams.
It was made clear by the court that all cases not related to poll violence should be handed back to the local police, the court said, “any obstruction to investigation shall be taken seriously”. Moreover, acting CJ Bindal made it clear that both the CBI and the SIT would have to work under the court’s supervision. Three members of the bench — Justices IP Mukerji, Harish Tandon and Soumen Sen — gave their “concurring judgments” separately.
“It is made clear that it shall be Court monitored investigation. The State shall spare their services for the purpose, as and when required and shall not take any adverse action against them without specific permission of the Court. The working of the SIT shall be overviewed by a retired Hon’ble Judge of the Hon’ble Supreme Court, for which separate order shall be passed after taking his/her consent. His/her terms of appointment shall be decided later on,” the order stated.
Moreover, the court precisely noted the contradictions between the NHRC-led committee and the state government. The NHRC reported 13 rape cases, including two gang rapes where complainants had moved the SC; the state government reported one attempt-to-rape case. The NHRC reported 59 murders; the state government acknowledged 29. The bench noted that police “closed” some cases after initiating FIRs suo motu. The final report of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on 16th July on the issue of post-poll violence in the state observed that the situation in West Bengal is a manifestation of the “Law of Ruler”, instead of “Rule of Law”.
Mamata Banerjee-led TMC is to be blamed for shamelessly defending the post-poll violence that erupted in the state which was neither sporadic nor random and for initially not letting the CBI probe stem out the main reason and the culprits responsible for the state of terror. This worrisome trend needs to be checked or the “disease” may spread to other states as well. Seems like the CBI, Special Investigation Team (SIT) along with the Calcutta high court pose a threat to exposing Mamata’s khela hobe violence.