The 14th Metropolitan Magistrate here has issued non-bailable arrest warrants on Monday against industrialist Ashok Todi, his brother Pradip Todi and their cousin Anil Saraogi, as they did not appear personally in response to the CBI chargesheet in the Rizwanur Rahman case.
Last year,
Rizwanur, a 30-year-old computer graphics trainer who got married to Ashok Todi’s daughter Priyanka, was found dead on a railway track.
Since there were allegations of complicity against the state police force, Calcutta High Court asked the CBI to take over the investigation.
The CBI then filed charge sheets against the Todis, Saraogi, their associate S.M. Mohiuddin and three policemen.
Now, the CBI is likely to arrest the Todis and produce them before the magistrate in 24 hours. Instead of appearing personally before the magistrate, the Todis’ filed a petition for a stay on the ground that the supreme court had stayed the trial.
The Todis also said the summons had directed them to appear personally or through their advocates. But the CBI and Rizwanur family said, “The magistrate had directed all the seven accused to appear personally on October 27.”
Rejecting the Todis’ plea, the magistrate, Bibhas Chatterjee, said, “They have not appeared personally to drag the proceedings.”
The magistrate also directed the three accused policemen – then deputy commissioner (detective department) Ajay Kumar and assistant commissioner and sub-inspector (anti-rowdy section) Sukanti Chakraborty and Krishnendu Das, respectively – to appear on November 3.
The three cops, however, appeared in advance on September 30, when the magistrate sent them to jail. The cops then moved the sessions court, which granted them interim bail on October 1.
Challenging this, Rizwanur’s brother Rukbanur moved the high court, arguing that the interim bail had been granted for an indefinite period without perusing the case diary.