The West Bengal government on Thursday filed an appeal before a division bench of the Calcutta High Court challenging a single-judge order directing CBI to probe the Parui murder case.
The state filed the appeal and mentioned it before the bench of Justices Jayanta Biswas and IC Das. The matter is likely to be heard by the bench tomorrow.
Justice Harish Tandon had yesterday directed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by the West Bengal DGP to hand over all material related to the case to CBI while expressing displeasure at the role of the top cop and the way the probe was handled by the SIT.
The case pertains to the murder in Birbhum district of Sagar Ghosh, who had in 2013 fought panchayat elections as an Independent candidate in West Bengal.
Justice Tandon had observed that “the confidence entrusted upon the DGP has been shattered as his action during the investigation was all along influenced by the government”.
“The entire investigation is tainted with extraneous influence, more particularly, by high-profile political executive giving a protective umbrella to the abettor of the offence,” he had said.
Justice Tandon had directed that “CBI shall investigate all aspects of the case related to the killing of Sagar Ghosh and file the report from time to time to the court concerned having jurisdiction.”
“With utmost expedition, the court having jurisdiction shall pass necessary orders from time to time on the basis of the reports filed by CBI depending upon the outcome of the investigation.”
Delivering his judgement in a plea for an impartial probe into the case, Justice Tandon had observed that there was total distortion of the statement recorded by the Investigating Officer of the SIT in the report submitted before the court on April 30, 2014.
TMC Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal is among 41 people named in the FIR lodged by Ghosh’s wife.
Mondal, however, was not named in the charge sheet filed by the SIT before the district court in Suri.
Mondal was accused of making inflammatory speeches at public meetings near Ghosh’s residence a few days before the fatal attack on Ghosh.
Ghosh was shot at his home in Badnabagram village under Parui police station area in Birbhum’s Kasba on the night of July 21, 2013, and succumbed to injuries two days later.
The high court had ordered a CID probe into the murder after Ghosh’s son Hridoy moved court seeking an independent probe into the matter upon claims that the district police was acting in a biased manner.
Later, displeased with the progress of the investigation by CID, the court had directed the formation of an SIT headed by the DGP to investigate the matter.
