Accepting the West Bengal government’s plea challenging the CBI probe into the alleged custodial torture of two women protesters who took part in Nabanna Abhijan march, the Supreme Court constituted a Special Investigation Team to investigate the case on Monday. The SIT will submit a weekly progress report on the probe to the Calcutta High Court.
Hearing the state government’s plea, a bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan constituted a three-member SIT comprising senior police officials from West Bengal, including two women officers, to probe the allegations. The officers were chosen from a list of seven officers submitted by the state government in the court.
The apex court directed the SIT to submit a report on the progress of the investigation to the Calcutta High Court on a weekly basis. The SC also directed the High Court to constitute a separate bench for the case.
Accepting West Bengal’s plea, the SC observed not all cases can be transferred to CBI and it could demoralize state police. "Routine entrustment of investigation of matters to CBI not only leads to burden on the premier investigating agency of the country, it has a very serious demoralizing impact on the officers of the state police. It may not be prudent to proceed on the premise that senior officers allocated to West Bengal cadre are incompetent or inefficient to hold a fair, independent and dispassionate investigation and find out the truth,” Live Law reported quoting the bench.
Earlier this month, the Calcutta High Court ordered a CBI probe into the alleged custodial torture of two women who took part in a protest against the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. The bench ordered the probe after it found discrepancies in the medical reports of protesters.
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The complainants, Rebeka Khatun Molla and Rama Das, were arrested on September 7 and remained in the custody of Falta Police Station until their judicial remand was ordered by the Diamond Harbour court the next day, PTI reported.
Citing the discrepancies in the medical report, the HC division bench noted while the report of the medical officer of Diamond Harbour sub-correctional home states hematoma on both of Das' legs, the examining doctor of Diamond Harbour Medical College and Hospital recorded no external injury. Holding prima facie trauma occurred on the petitioner, the HC ordered a probe by an independent agency.