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SC slams Bengal police for inaction in rape case
In a blatant case of human rights violation, the West Bengal police have been sitting over the probe of a rape case involving a serving judicial officer of a fast track court in Nadia district, reports Bhadra Sinha.
In a blatant case of human rights violation, the West Bengal police have been sitting over the probe of a rape case involving a serving judicial officer of a fast track court in Nadia district.
The alleged incident took place in June 2004 and a case accusing the judge was registered at Ranaghat police station on July 12.
The local police have, however, failed to submit the case before court for holding a trial against the judicial officer. In fact, it has not even taken the officer’s semen for the purpose of gathering scientific evidence. The police had lost before trial court that declined permission to the investigating officer to collect Gupta's semen. Ironically, the police have not appealed against that order in the last four years. The State’s public prosecutor ruled out filing of a petition seeking revision of a lower court order.
Taking up the case, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has now approached the SC seeking action against the inept West Bengal Police. A bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan on Monday issued notice to the State and sought its reply.
The Commission has filed its petition on the basis of two complaints, one by the victim herself and second by an NGO. NHRC took cognizance of the complaint on October 6, 2004. Repeated notices to the state as well as local police yielded no response from the investigating authority. The police failed to comply with the Commission's orders directing them to file a status report.
When the Commission wrote to Bengal Police Directorate, the latter shot of a letter to NHRC asking it to initiate further correspondence with the Kolkata Police Commissioner. After much persuasion, NHRC managed to get a reply from the police in which the investigating officer had claimed to record the statement of the victim and accused. However NHRC learned the police had made no headway with regard to collecting the semen of accused.
