Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government has moved the Supreme Court challenging the CBI's post-poll violence probe. The Kolkata High Court had earlier directed the CBI to probe the violence that took place in the state after the state assembly election.
On 19th August, the High Court had referred all the cases cited in the NHRC report about murder and rapes to the CBI. Other cases were referred to a Special Investigation Team for a court-monitored probe. The SIT consisted of three Bengal cadre IPS officers and its work was asked to be reviewed by a retired SC judge. The State was also asked to cooperate with the CBI and SIT.
However, the government has now expressed reservations about the central agency probing the case while it is dealing with cases against TMC leaders.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has already started the preliminary investigation into the case. According to reports, few instances of negligence on part of the state police in treating the complaints of violence have already started becoming evident.
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The CBI sleuths have identified several inconsistencies in the FIRs filed by state police especially in the cases of murders and rapes. Hence, a number of state police officials have come under the scanner of the central probe agency.
Already, the CBI officers have started filing FIRs related to the cases. Till now they have filed a total of 31 FIRs, out of which six are related to rape, 15 are related to murder and the remaining ten are related to instances of molestation, murder threats, destruction of properties and creating terror in the localities.
The CBI is supposed to submit its status report within six months from the day the Calcutta High Court ordered CBI inquiry in the matter. Initially, CBI officers thought the status report would have about 84 FIRs. "But now it feels the numbers of FIRs to be mentioned in the status report will be much more than 100," said a CBI official on strict condition of anonymity.
At the same time, it is also evident that CBI does not want to leave any loopholes in the investigation. According to CBI sources, besides on-spot investigation, the probe officials are giving special emphasis on case diaries. A total of seven CBI officials, with proven expertise in filing water-tight case diaries, are being specially flown in for that purpose.
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The investigating CBI teams are divided on the basis of four zones. One camp is that of steel-city of Durgapur, wherefrom the CBI team stationed there are investigating the cases in districts like Bankura, Birbhum, and West Midnapore. The second camp is in Cooch Behar in North Bengal, the district that has witnessed maximum incidences of post-poll violence.
"It is not feasible to be centrally stationed in Kolkata and operate in the faraway districts. So we are moving ahead on a planned zone-wise basis," the CBI official said.
