CALCUTTA HIGH COURT ORDERED A CENTRAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION PROBE IN THE WEST BENGAL POST POLL VIOLENCE

Recently the Calcutta High Court ordered a court-monitored Central Bureau of Investigation probe in the West Bengal Post poll violence. As per the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)report, the court said that all allegations are about crimes against women or murder of a person, such as rape or attempt to rape. The state government shall hand over the cases to the CBI for investigation. 

The Court further ordered that the SIT shall investigate other cases. Senior officers from the West Bengal cadre are part of the investigation team. The retired Supreme Court judge will oversee the function.

The Bench comprising a 5-judge bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal, Justice IP Mukerji, Justice Harish Tandon, Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Subrata Talukdar rejected the state's allegations against the NHRC that their investigation was biased. The court earlier ordered a seven-member committee of NHRC to conduct an inquiry of human rights violation during the post-poll violence. Given the same, the NHRC submitted a fact-finding report.

The Court lastly directed SIT and CBI to submit a status report within 6 weeks.

Author: Papiha Ghoshal