E-Paper
Sandeshkhali violence: SC dismisses Bengal govt’s plea against CBI probe
The Supreme Court has also pulled up the West Bengal government for not doing anything in the land grabbing and sexual assault incidents involving TMC leaders in Sandeshkhali
The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the West Bengal government for not doing anything in the incidents related to land grabbing and sexual assault involving Trinamool Congress leaders in Sandeshkhali and dismissed a petition filed by the state challenging an order of the Calcutta high court transferring probe into 43 cases to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
A bench of justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan said, “All these cases are related to Sandeshkhali. This is not an omnibus order. You do not do anything by arresting the accused.”
Dismissing the state’s appeal challenging the April 10 order, the bench added that the remarks made by the high court against the state’s probe into the cases will not influence the investigating agency in its ongoing probe.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing for the West Bengal government informed the court that while the high court could have asked CBI to probe the alleged attack against the officials of Enforcement Directorate (ED) during their probe into the ration scam, there was no rationale to transfer the ration scam probe to the CBI.
“It can’t be a general blanket direction to probe all cases,” Singhvi said.
He pointed out that the state had probed the ration scam along with other cases involving sexual assault and land grabbing and submitted 42 charge sheets and hence, no ground was made out to transfer the cases to CBI.
The court observed, “Why should the state be interested in protected private individuals,” as it questioned the state as to when the accused involved in the cases were arrested. The court had sought this information when the matter was last heard on April 29. On that date too, the top court had questioned the state’s intent to protect the accused, including TMC local leader Shahjahan Sheikh.
Singhvi appeared even on the previous date and submitted that the high court had made comments on the state’s conduct, against which the appeal was filed.
Senior advocate Jaideep Gupta, also appearing for the state said, “There are comments against the state which is unfair even when the state has taken all possible action.”
The high court had directed CBI to probe allegations of sexual assault and land grabbing against TMC leaders including Shahjahan Sheikh and submit a comprehensive report to it.
Sandeshkhali, comprising 16 village panchayat areas in North 24 Parganas district, has been witnessing tensions since January 5, when an Enforcement Directorate team, which went to raid Shahjahan Sheikh’s house in connection with a money-laundering case, was attacked by a mob. Shahjahan was arrested in February even as villagers led by local women, who alleged sexual assault by him, and others held protests.
Shahjahan has been booked for various offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including gangrape (Section 376D) and attempt to murder (Section 307) by the state police. against alleged sexual assault and exploitation by local TMC leaders. Besides Sheikh, other local TMC leaders including Shibaprasad Hazra and Uttam Sardar, who are zila parishad members and close aides of Shahjahan, have also been arrested in connection with the complaints by the villagers.
The high court order passed by a bench of chief justice TS Sivagnanam and justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya said, “It goes without saying that CBI shall have the power to require any person, organisation, government authority, police authorities, quasi governmental authorities, NGOs, public spirited persons and others who may be genuinely interested in the matter to furnish information on such point or matters, as in its opinion may be useful for, or relevant to the subject matter.”
