Kolkata/Barasat, July 4: The Calcutta High Court on Thursday said it would monitor the CID investigation into the Kamduni gang rape and murder case and also questioned the justification of state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's fixing of a time frame for completing the probe.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Joymalyo Bagchi directed that the court would monitor the probe into the gruesome incident, which occurred on June 7 and asked the CID to file a report on the progress of the investigation by July 30.
Mamata's speech “populist”
The division bench of the Calcutta High Court, taking up the PIL seeking formation of a Special Investigation Team to probe the incident and monitoring by the court, questioned the justification of the head of the state administration's fixing of time frame for filing chargesheet and completion of trial.
“We promise stringent action against the culprits. We shall submit chargesheet within 15 days and the culprits will be punished within a month. We, on behalf of the government, will plead for death sentence,” Mamata Banerjee had said during her visit to Kamduni on June 17, following the incident.
Observing that such comments create pressure on the investigators, the division bench said that this leads to hurried investigation and thus leaves scope for lacunae.
Terming such comments as populist, the bench observed that a person who is the head of administration should be cautious in making such comments.
The PIL, moved by counsels Bikash Bhattacharya and Uday Shankar Chatterjee, has also prayed for a compensation of Rs. 50 lakh to the kin of the girl, who was brutally raped and murdered at a secluded spot in the afternoon of June 7, when she was returning home after appearing for a university examination.
At Barasat, a fast track court hearing the case on Thursday fixed July 12 for the submission of the chargesheet against six accused by the CID.
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