The Calcutta High Court on Friday directed the West Bengal Police's Special Investigation Team (SIT) to hand over the Birbhum violence case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Eight people including two kids were charred to death on Tuesday when houses were set on fire in Bogtui village of Rampurhat shortly after a TMC leader, also the deputy chief of the village panchayat, was murdered.
Earlier on Thursday, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice R Bharadwaj had reserved its order in a suo motu petition, along with a bunch of PILs seeking a probe by CBI or NIA in the case.
The bench said that the CBI probe was being ordered in the interest of justice and directed the agency to file a progress report by April 7, the next date of hearing of the matter.
"...in the interest of justice and to instill confidence in the society and to have fair investigation to dig out the truth it is necessary to hand over the investigation to the CBI," the court said in its order. "Accordingly, we direct the State Government to forthwith hand over the investigation of the case to CBI. We also direct the State authorities to extend full cooperation to CBI in carrying out the further investigation."
Strong observations made by Calcutta HC:
The case diary of the incident has been produced before us. We have minutely examined it. We find that though the SIT was constituted on 22.03.2022 but till now there is no effective contribution of the SIT in the investigation. It has been submitted that in spite of the fact that the police station is very near to the spot of incident, the police did not reach on time and persons trapped inside the houses were kept on burning.
On minute examination of the case diary, we are of the opinion that the investigation as expected, keeping in view the gravity of the offence, has not been done.
It is pertinent to mention here that expeditious steps are required to be taken to hand over the investigation to an independent investigating agency because there is an allegation of an attempt to wipe off the evidence. We take note of the fact that learned Additional Solicitor General has stated that CBI has no difficulty in doing the investigation.
While the state opposed the prayer for CBI or NIA probe, submitting that an enquiry is being conducted by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the West Bengal government and prayed that the SIT be given time to proceed with it, Additional Solicitor General YJ Dastur submitted that the CBI or the NIA are ready to initiate a probe if an order is passed by the court to that effect. Following the conclusion of submissions by all parties, the High Court said it will consider the arguments and pass the order.
Meanwhile, a seven-member team from Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Delhi, is slated to visit Bogtui village today for the collection of samples from the crime scene as ordered by the HC earlier.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had yesterday evening visited Bogtui village, the scene of Tuesday’s fire bombing and burning of eight people, and spoke with the family members of the victims and offered them permanent government jobs and funds as compensation.
Banerjee said there could be a bigger conspiracy behind the carnage which has attracted widespread condemnation. She also announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the next of the kin of the victims, and Rs 2 lakh each for rebuilding the damaged houses. Those injured will be provided with Rs 50,000 each.
The CM directed the police to arrest TMC leader and Rampurhat-1 community block unit president Anarul Hossain stating that he did not pay proper attention to the apprehension of locals about a possible disturbance in the area, leading to the carnage.
She also visited the house of TMC leader Bhadu Sheikh, whose murder is suspected to have triggered the carnage, and gave the same offers to his next of kin.
READ MORE: Police arrests local TMC boss after Mamata orders hunting down of all suspects
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