A petitioner in the post-poll violence case in West Bengal on Tuesday approached the Calcutta High Court and questioned why the Special Investigation Team (SIT) was not functioning as per the court’s directions.
High Court’s five-judge bench ordered on August 19 SIT constituted of IPS officers Soumen Mitra, Suman Bala Sahu and Ranbir Kumar to probe charges other than murder and sexual assault. The High Court had said that the working of the SIT would be “observed by a retired Hon’ble Judge of the Hon’ble Supreme Court, for which a separate order would be passed after taking his concurrence”.
Petitioner Kashinath Vishwas’s counsel Ravi Shankar Chatterjee told a bench of Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal that more than 10 days have elapsed but the state government has not taken steps for the functioning of the three-member SIT.
The court found that it was aware that the SIT was not functioning and said that if necessary, steps would be taken. In its order, the court had directed both the CBI and the SIT to file a status report within six weeks.
CBI registers 10 more FIRs
CBI registered 10 more FIRs taking the number of cases to 31.
Teams of CBI officers visited various parts of the state, including Nandigram, where the FIR was registered on Tuesday. The officials visited the residence of Devvrat Manjhi in Nandigram, who was reportedly injured on May 3 and died on May 13. CBI officials also spoke to the officials of Nandigram police station.
Nandigram was one of the bitterest seats where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee contested against Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP. Ms Banerjee lost the election by a narrow margin of 1,956 votes.
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