The Supreme Court on Monday adjourned the hearing on the West Bengal government’s plea challenging Calcutta High Court’s recent orders over the Sandeshkhali incident.
The apex court heard the plea of the state government challenging the Calcutta court’s order which directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to launch a probe into the Sandeshkhali case.
The bench which heard the case comprised Justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta who looked into the allegations of crimes against women and land-grabbing incidents in Sandeshkhali.
The matter was adjourned to the second week of July. The court reasoned that it would be more “conducive” to hear the matter after the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
In its plea to the top court, the West Bengal government argued that the high court’s April 10 order “demoralised the entire state machinery”, this included the police force that was currently investigating the matter.
“The high court in a very generic order directed the State to provide the required support to the CBI without any guidelines, which amounts to usurping the powers of the state police to investigate any cognisable offence in the Sandeshkhali area, even if the same is not related to the allegations levelled by the PIL petitioners,” the West Bengal government’s plea read.
What did the Calcutta High Court say?
It is important to note that the CBI is already investigating the case of attack on Enforcement Directorate officials in Sandeshkhali and has registered three FIRs in this regard on January 5.
In light of this, the Calcutta High Court stated that the investigation would be monitored by the court and directed the CBI to file a comprehensive report on the alleged illegal conversion of agricultural land into water bodies for pisciculture. The court ordered that the CBI should file the report after conducting a thorough inspection of revenue records and a physical inspection of land alleged to have been converted.
In the April court order, the high court also directed the CBI to investigate allegations of crimes against women and land grabbing in Sandeshkhali and submit a comprehensive report about it in the next hearing. The court eventually set May 2 as the next date of hearing in the case.
The gravity of the situation
Around 600 complaints in the form of affidavits, including those of alleged sexual atrocities, land grabbing and other crimes such as assault and destruction of property were submitted before the court by petitioner lawyer Priyanka Tibrewal.
Meanwhile, amid the brewing turmoil in the region, ED officials were attacked by a mob on January 5 when they went to Sandeshkhali to search the premises of now-suspended Trinamool Congress leader Shahjahan Sheikh in connection with a ration distribution scam case.
After passing the judgement, the high court observed that an impartial inquiry is required to be done by an agency which has the power to probe the criminal angle involved in the case. The court said that considering the nature of the allegations involved crimes against women and grabbing of land of locals, including those belonging to Scheduled Tribes, the CBI should investigate the matter.
The high court said that since the CBI is already investigating the attack on an ED official they can take over the allegations and complaints of the people of Sandeshkhali.
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