CBI investigation a 'gallery show right now', says Calcutta HC

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Monday called CBI probes "a gallery show right now" while turning down a plea for an investigation by the central agency into an East Midnapore murder in July. It, instead, said it would hand over the probe to the Bengal CID after taking the case out of the local police station.

"The CBI is a gallery show right now. If I give CBI, it will just be a gallery show," Justice Tirthankar Ghosh told the father of a 22-year-old East Midnapore youth whose death had prompted the family to move court seeking a fresh autopsy and a CBI probe.

Sujit Das and Sudhir Chandra Paik died during a social function in East Midnapore's Khejuri on July 12. Cops, after an initial probe, said the deaths were caused by electrocution but Sasanka (Sujit's dad who moved court) claimed his son was brutally assaulted by Trinamool supporters and cops were shielding the accused. The BJP had declared a local bandh after the deaths.

The first autopsy, done by a district hospital in Tamluk, blamed electrocution for the death but a second (at SSKM Hospital) indicated assault as the cause of the death because the body bore bruise marks. Sasanka's counsel, Mayukh Mukherjee, told the judge on Monday that the family wanted a CBI probe as it did not have any faith in cops.

"I am taking it out of the local police station and giv-ing it to the CID," Justice Ghosh said, responding to the plea. "The CID additional director-general will constitute a special investigation team under the leadership of a deputy inspector-general and including officers from the CID's homicide section. You want investigation. There are two autopsy reports before this court, which have weakened the case for the accused persons," he added. The final order is likely to be pronounced on Tuesday.

Mukherjee pleaded for a "fair" investigation, adding: "Trial cannot start without a proper probe and that is why the case should be transferred to a competent agency." Justice Ghosh replied that he could go to the HC's division bench if he felt "aggrieved". "I will not give it to a central agency," he added.


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