The Calcutta High Court has directed the CBI and the court-monitored Special Investigation Team (SIT) to submit fresh investigation reports in West Bengal’s post-poll violence cases. The order was passed on Monday by a division bench of Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava and Justice I.P. Mukherjee. The bench also wanted a list of “homeless” political activists.
The state police SIT had earlier submitted a progress report on the post-poll violence probe. That report is a month old. Therefore, the High Court wanted a new report to know exactly at what stage the investigation was at present.
On Monday, the lawyer of the plaintiffs raised the issue of compensation. In this context, Justice I.P. Mukherjee said that first the investigation should be completed, then the compensation issue would be addressed. Prosecutor Priyanka Tibrewal alleged that some residents of Shyamnagar were still unable to return home and could not attend work. Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava directed to submit a long list of those homeless people to the Advocate General. The case will be heard again on 23 December. Earlier, the larger bench had said that compensation would be given only if there was an FIR. According to the CBI, an FIR has been registered against 40 people so far. The investigation is still ongoing.
There were several allegations of political violence after the Assembly election results were declared on 2 May. The BJP made most of the allegations, and has maintained that in many cases, there has been police inaction. The state police administration has shown reluctance to file cases against the ruling camp. Following the order of the Calcutta High Court on 19 August, the CBI has started an investigation into the post-poll violence.
The state government hasalready approached the Supreme Court over the case. The state government had said in the application that the CBI had started the probe without the state’s permission. The Centre has informed the Supreme Court that the state has no power to allow the CBI to investigate or to close the CBI investigation. There have been 43 FIRs so far directed by the Calcutta High Court over the post-poll violence. It is to be noted that the first case in which the CBI was involved in the post-poll violence investigation was in Birbhum. Four representatives of the CBI visited the Trinamool Congress’ party office in Ilambazar. They went to investigate the death of BJP activist Gaurab Sarkar, who was killed in the violence.