Kolkata: Amidst state government and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee putting up their ante against the CBI probe in the alleged scams in the state, the Calcutta High Court in the last couple of weeks has ordered CBI probe to at least seven cases.
The recent addition to the CBI probe by Calcutta High Court is in the gang-rape and murder in Hanskhali in Nadia district where a 14-year-old girl was gang-raped by TMC leader’s son and his friends and the girl later died in wee hours next day on April 5.
Though the state police initiated the probe, the High Court later ordered a CBI probe as according to the court, CBI probe is necessary since a TMC leader is involved in the case which might ‘influence’ the probe.
In the recent Birbhum violence where TMC block president Bhadu Sheikh was murdered by crude bomb following which at least 10 houses were torched killing nine people including children is also probed by the CBI.
Though Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) and visited Rampurhat where the incident took place, the High Court finding some ‘discrepancies’ instructed CBI to probe and asked SIT not to investigate further.
Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava heard pleas for ordering a CBI probe into the murder of Bhadu Sheikh as well, claiming that the two incidents were interlinked.
The Calcutta High Court has ordered a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in the recruitment of teachers in state-run schools through State Level Selection Test (SLST) and Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay also ordered CBI probe in the recruitment of School Service Commission (SSC). Justice Gangopadhyay had even asked former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee to visit the CBI office, which the division bench of the High Court had stayed for four weeks.
The Calcutta High Court had even ordered a CBI probe into Congress councillor Tapan Kandu’s murder case, and even instructed that the Jhalda police should hand over all case-related documents to the central agency.
Later, eyewitness of the murder and close aide Niranjan Baishav committed suicide under mysterious circumstances and the High Court even instructed CBI to probe this case claiming that the two deaths can also be interlinked.
It is pertinent to mention in all the above-mentioned cases, the state government wanted the state police probe while the opposition parties demanded Central agency probe as according to the opposition the state police works at the ‘behest’ of the ruling Trinamool Congress.
State BJP president Sukanta Majumdar and senior CPI (M) leader Sujan Chakraborty claimed that state police might conduct a ‘bias’ probe for which the central agency is needed to punish the ‘culprits’.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also held an emergency meeting at state secretariat Nabanna to discuss the 'frequent' CBI probes instructed by the High Court.
