Cal HC stays single bench's order of appointing SIT to probe girl's death in Kaliaganj

Kolkata, Jun 14 (PTI) A division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday stayed an order of a single bench appointing a special investigation team (SIT), which included two retired IPS officers, to probe the unnatural death of a teenage girl at Kaliaganj in West Bengal's Uttar Dinajpur district on April 20.
    The West Bengal government had moved an appeal challenging the May 11 order of the single bench which appointed the three-member SIT to probe the death that had led to violent protests by locals alleging that it was a case of murder.
    A division bench presided by Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam stayed till further orders the single bench direction appointing the SIT.
    The bench, also comprising Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharayya, said that in its prima facie view, the constitution of an SIT, that too on the ground that there are doubts about the investigation conducted by the police, "and appointing two retired officers as part of the SIT would be transgressing the settled legal parameters".
    The court directed that the matter will appear for further hearing in the monthly list of July.
    The bench said that the Supreme Court has on various occasions observed that in the rarest of rare cases, the investigation in a case should be transferred from one agency to another agency, either of the state or of the central government.
    The division bench said that on going through the order of the single bench, it finds that the order constituting an SIT appears to be on the grounds that the single bench had a doubt with regard to the investigation conducted by the state police.
    Questioning whether an investigation can be transferred to a specialised agency or an SIT merely on the grounds that the writ court doubts the investigation conducted by the state police, the division bench said that the level of satisfaction of the court has to be recorded for transferring the probe.
    The bench noted that the SIT has been formed consisting of two retired officers and a serving IPS officer of the state police.
    "The question is whether such retired officers can constitute a special investigation team," the court said.
    Appearing for the state, Advocate General S N Mookherjee submitted that the two retired officers have been giving interviews to the media on various issues.
    The girl's father had moved the high court seeking the transfer of investigation into his daughter's death to the CBI, claiming that he has no faith in the probe done by the state police.
    Observing that truth must come out, Justice Rajasekhar Mantha had on May 11 ordered the formation of an SIT comprising a retired additional director of CBI, a former IG-rank officer of the West Bengal police and a special commissioner of Kolkata Police to investigate the unnatural death of the girl.
    Upen Biswas, who had headed the fodder scam case probe, former IG Pankaj Dutta and special commissioner (I) of Kolkata Police, Damayanti Sen will constitute the SIT, the court directed.
    Sen has since been transferred to the state police by the West Bengal government.
    The state had told the court that the girl was reported to have gone missing on April 20 and that her dead body was found near a pond in the area a day later.
    Alleging that she was sexually assaulted and gagged to death, the petitioner's lawyer prayed that the investigation be transferred to the CBI, claiming that the parents have no faith in a probe by the state authorities.
    Stating that no sign of sexual assault was found on the body as per the postmortem report, the state lawyer had claimed that there were signs of poisoning on the body.
    Violent protests took place at Kaliaganj on April 25 over the death of the girl with agitators also setting fire to Kaliaganj police station.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)