Kolkata: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has told the Calcutta High Court that it wants to take over investigation into the 2021 Sitalkuchi firing in West Bengal.
The CBI, which submitted its fifth status report on its investigations into the allegations of violence in the aftermath of last year’s West Bengal assembly elections, told the court Wednesday that it had sent three letters to West Bengal’s Director General of Police Manoj Malviya for details of the Sitalkuchi case. The CBI said it sent its first letter on 6 January, followed by two reminders — one on 21 January and another on 11 March. The DGP has been unresponsive so far, the CBI told a division bench headed by Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava.
Four people were allegedly killed in Central Industrial Security Force firing at a polling booth at Mathabhanga in Cooch Behar district. Security forces had said then that the CISF had opened fire after “coming under attack from locals”.
Two separate First Information Reports were registered in the case — one against six CISF troopers allegedly involved in the firing, and another over the attack on the troopers.
The state’s Crime Investigation Department is currently investigating the case, on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s orders.
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Returns six cases to state police
The CBI told the court in its report that it had filed charge sheets against over 250 people in 26 cases and that investigation is ongoing in 20 more. According to the report, 224 people have been arrested so far in connection with the violence.
For context, the Calcutta High Court had ordered the CBI to investigate 93 cases of rape, murder, and crimes against women in the aftermath of the 2021 assembly elections in West Bengal in August last year. The CBI submitted its fifth status report in the cases Wednesday.
Four Special Investigation Teams, each headed by an officer of the joint director rank, are investigating the case, the CBI told the court.
The CBI also informed the high court in the report that it had sent six cases back to the West Bengal Police because these could not be categorised as rape or murder.
“This is probably the first time that the CBI has handed over its cases to the state police,” a senior investigating officer of CBI told ThePrint.
The officer said all six cases were attempted rape.
“Since we were ordered to probe only murder and rape cases, these cases we’ve passed on to the SIT for investigation,” the cop said.
The Calcutta High Court has asked the CBI to share its status report with the state’s Special Investigation Team investigating the violence, dismissing CBI’s brief objections.
This would be the first time the state police will get a copy of the CBI’s status report. The report must be shared before the next hearing of the case, the court told the agency.
West Bengal’s SIT also submitted its own report to the court in the same hearing. The police told the court that they had completed their investigation and filed charge sheets in 31 of the 35 cases it was investigating.
“Investigation is pending in one case,” Advocate General SN Mookherjee, who represented the West Bengal Police, told the court. “One was found to be unnatural death, one was a cognizable offence, and a closure report has been filed in another one.”
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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