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SC agrees to hear plea for SIT probe to evaluate Sandeshkhali ‘sting video’
The plea in the Supreme Court claims that local women were coerced into signing blank papers
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court was on Tuesday requested to urgently hear a plea calling for the formation of a special investigation team (SIT) to evaluate the authenticity of a sting operation video concerning allegations of rape and sexual assault in West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali.
The video allegedly reveals that accusations against the Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and main accused in the case, Shahjahan Sheikh, were fabricated, and implicates BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari for orchestrating a plot to tarnish the reputation of TMC leaders.
Senior advocate Meneka Guruswamy mentioned the plea before a bench of justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta, which agreed to consider it for immediate listing.
The plea, filed by a woman from the state, seeks to intervene in an ongoing petition filed by the West Bengal government against a Calcutta high court order for a CBI investigation into related accusations of rape and land grabbing in Sandeshkhali. The state’s petition is pending before the bench led by justice Gavai and is scheduled to come up for hearing in July. There is no stay on the ongoing proceedings in the Calcutta high court.
The woman’s plea in the Supreme Court claims that local women were coerced into signing blank papers, which were later used to lodge false complaints of rape against TMC officials.
The application, filed through advocate Udayaditya Banerjee, urges the top court to oversee an independent probe by the proposed SIT into both the incidents and the contents of the sting operation video. The plea argues that the video exposes potential manipulations by constitutional authorities and investigative agencies, necessitating a court-monitored probe.
Emphasising the neutrality of the applicant, who declares no political ties and belongs to the Scheduled Caste community, the application stresses the importance of verifying the facts to illuminate the political exploitation of the Sandeshkhali issue as alleged in the video.
