KOLKATA: The Calcutta high court on Wednesday ordered a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the death of two men in alleged police firing in North Dinajpur district over recruitment of teachers in a high school in North Dinajpur district in 2018, a lawyer said.
“The bench of justice Rajasekhar Mantha ordered NIA probe into the incident. The court has also told the state government to pay compensation to the families of the victims,” said lawyer Partha Ghosh.
This is the second case to be transferred to NIA in the last fortnight on orders of the high court. On April 27, the high court directed NIA to investigate the violence over Ram Navami celebrations in West Bengal earlier this year.
Wednesday’s high court order came on a petition by the families of the two men who sought an investigation by a central agency, not the state’s criminal investigation department, or CID.
The two victims, Rajesh Sarkar, 19, and Tapash Barman, 21, were former students of Darivit High School in Islampur where the violence over the appointment of Urdu and Sanskrit teachers took place.
The families had buried the bodies of the two men so that the CBI could investigate the wounds at a later date. Ghosh said the court left it to NIA to decide if the agency wants a second autopsy of the bodies.
{{/usCountry}}The families had buried the bodies of the two men so that the CBI could investigate the wounds at a later date. Ghosh said the court left it to NIA to decide if the agency wants a second autopsy of the bodies.
{{/usCountry}}Ghosh said: “The Calcutta high court thought that it was a fit case to be probed by the NIA as there were reports of explosion during the violence”.
The BJP has welcomed the high court order, underlining that people did not have faith in the state police.
Suvendu Adhikari, BJP legislator and leader of the opposition in the state assembly welcomed the order in a post on Twitter, referring to the deaths of the two men as “state-sponsored murder”. “They were shot dead inside the school compound by Mamata Police on 20th September 2018 while protesting against the forceful Urdu imposition by the Mamata Govt. Truth will prevail, Bengali Language Martyrs; Rajesh & Tapas will finally get justice,” Adhikari said in his post.
BJP vice president Dilip Ghosh said: “It seems that not only the people but courts too have lost faith in the state police”.
The Trinamool Congress cited the recent Supreme Court order that set aside a Calcutta high court order of a CBI probe into the alleged attack on the convoy of union minister of state Nisith Pramanik.
North Bengal development minister Udayan Guha said he hadn’t seen the high court order and did not want to comment on it. “But if Dilip Ghosh has said that courts have lost faith in the state police I would just like to remind him that recently the apex court set aside an order of the high court for a CBI probe. It seems that the Supreme Court has faith in the state police,” Guha said.