Kolkata: The probe of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the alleged murder of student leader Anis Khan is unsatisfactory and should be handed over to another agency, the Calcutta high court was told on Monday.
The court has directed against making public the report and said it can be shared only with lawyer Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya. It took cognisance of the case on February 21 on Bhattacharya’s petition two days after Khan fell to death from the second floor of his home in Bengal’s Howrah district.
The SIT submitted an 82-page interim report to the court in a sealed envelope on April 19.
The court separately rejected a petition of Khan’s father, Salem Khan, for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the alleged murder on February 24. It directed the family to cooperate with the SIT and allow it to exhume Anis Khan’s body for a second post-mortem.
Bhattacharya on Monday told a single-judge bench of justice Rajasekhar Mantha the SIT made no significant progress in two months. He added an effort was being made to prove Anis Khan died by suicide.
Justice Mantha asked Bhattacharya to file an affidavit within a week explaining why SIT’s probe is unsatisfactory.
{{/usCountry}}Justice Mantha asked Bhattacharya to file an affidavit within a week explaining why SIT’s probe is unsatisfactory.
{{/usCountry}}Anis Khan’s family has said three men dressed like civic police volunteers threw him off the second floor of their home. They added a fourth person in police uniform and carrying a rifle accompanied the three.
Anis Khan, 27, a former student at Kolkata’s Aliah University, led many agitations. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on February 21 formed the SIT amid state-wide protests.
On February 23, home guard Kashinath Bera and civic police volunteer Pritam Bhattacharya were arrested. They have alleged they have been made scapegoats. Debabrata Chakraborty, the in charge of the local police station, was sent on leave for an indefinite period before SIT questioned him.
Salem Khan failed to identify Bera and Bhattacharya during a test identification parade saying he did not see the faces of the three men who allegedly killed his son. He said he only saw the face of the fourth man who stood with him at the entrance to their house.
Anis Khan’s brother, Sabir Khan, said the student leader had sought police protection because he feared an attack. “Why would he commit suicide? Did the policemen come to our house on February 19 and rush to the roof to oversee his suicide? The SIT is suppressing facts.”