Calcutta HC Monday said CBI probes are “a gallery show right now” and turned down a plea for an investigation by the central agency into an East Midnapore murder in July. It said it would instead hand over the investigation to the Bengal CID after taking the case out of the local police station.
“If I give it to CBI, it will just be a gallery show,” Justice Tirthankar Ghosh told the father of a 22-year-old East Midnapore youth whose death had prompted the family to move court seeking a fresh autopsy and a CBI investigation.
Sujit Das and Sudhir Chandra Paik died during a social function in East Midnapore’s Khejuri on July 12.
Police said after an initial probe the deaths were caused by electrocution, but Sasanka (Sujit’s father, who moved court) claimed his son was brutally assaulted by Trinamool supporters and that police were shielding the accused. BJP had declared a local bandh after the deaths.
The first autopsy, at a district hospital in Tamluk, said electrocution was the cause of death, but a second one, at SSKM Hospital, indicated assault as the cause of the death because the body bore bruise marks. Sasanka’s counsel, Mayukh Mukherjee, told the judge on Monday that the family wanted a CBI investigation as it did not have faith in the police. “I am taking it out of the local police station and giving it to the CID,” Justice Ghosh said, responding to the appeal.
“The CID additional director-general will constitute an SIT under the leadership of a DIG and including officers from CID’s homicide section. You want an investigation. There are two autopsy reports before this court, which have weakened the case for the accused,” he added. The final order is likely to be pronounced on Tuesday.
