Kolkata, March 2 (IANS) The Calcutta High Court Friday order the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to probe the killing of two Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leaders, an incident the Left Front blames on the ruling Trinamool Congress.
A division bench of Chief Justice J.N. Patel and Justice Sambuddha Chakrabarti, observing that two rival political parties were involved in the matter, ordered the state government to hand over the investigation to the CID which will from time to time submit probe reports to the court.
The bench, hearing a public interest litigation filed by former Kolkata mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya and others, ordered the CID to submit a preliminary investigation report by March 23.
During the hearing, the court expressed displeasure over the state of investigation and also pulled the state government for not submitting the autopsy reports of the deceased even after the expiry of 10 days, Bhattacharya said.
“The court was not satisfied with the way the investigation was being carried on. Only four arrests have been made so far and they have not been interrogated properly. In view of this, the court ordered the CID probe,” he said.
The PIL filed Feb 23 had demanded for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in to the killing of CPI-M’s Pradip Tah, who earlier represented Burdwan North in the assembly, and the party’s district committee member Kamal Gayen.
Bhattacharya said that though they had demanded a CBI probe, they are happy with the court’s decision. “Since the high court will supervise the investigation we are happy with the decision, though we had sought a CBI probe,” he said.
The writ had also sought the court’s intervention in refraining lawmakers and other higher government officials from publicly commenting on any issue which is under investigation.
The two Marxist leaders were killed in a clash Feb 22. While the Left Front blamed ruling Trinamool Congress, Banerjee linked the deaths to infighting within the CPI-M.
