Kolkata: Observing that the killing of eight people in Birbhum district earlier this week has shaken the conscience of society, the Calcutta High Court on Friday (March 25) directed the CBI to take over the investigation into the case from the SIT formed by the West Bengal government and submit a progress report before it on the next date of hearing. The court, which registered a suo motu petition in the case on Wednesday, said that facts and circumstances demand that the investigation be handed over to the CBI in the interest of justice and also to instill confidence in the society.


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Opposition parties welcomed the high court order for CBI investigation into the violence alleging that the state police, acting on the behest of the Trinamool Congress government, was trying to hush up the matter. The TMC questioned whether the agency, which is under the union government, can be trusted with an impartial probe claiming the BJP has been using the CBI to corner the opposition parties.


The Mamata Banerjee-led party said all cooperation would be extended to the CBI but there would be mass movements if the saffron party uses it to harass TMC leaders. Miscreants had on March 21 set 10 houses on fire in Bogtui village in Birbhum district, killing at least eight people including women and children, in a suspected fallout of the murder of a ruling Trinamool Congress leader and 'upa-pradhan' (deputy chief) of the local panchayat.


"We direct the CBI to forthwith take over the investigation in the case and submit the progress report before us on the next date of hearing," a division bench headed by Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava said in its order. The matter will be heard again on April 7. Noting that the incident had a "nationwide ramification", the court asked the state government to extend full cooperation to the central agency.


Directing the state police or the government-appointed SIT not to hold any further investigation into the matter, the bench ordered that all documents as well as the accused and suspects arrested in the case be handed over to the central probe agency. The bench said that after minutely examining the case diary of the matter, it found that though the SIT was constituted on March 22, "till now there is no effective contribution of the SIT in the investigation". The court, however, did not divulge details of the shortcomings in the SIT probe.


Apart from the suo motu case, five PILs seeking an order for investigation by an independent agency were heard by the court. The bench had on Wednesday directed Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory (CFSL), Delhi, to collect samples for forensic examination from the place of occurrence. A CFSL team visited the gutted houses on Friday. "We welcome the court's decision. Only a CBI probe can bring out the truth as the police, acting as agents of the ruling party, were trying to suppress the matter," state BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar said.
The BJP's state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya hoped the state police "had not wiped out all pieces of evidence" in the last three days.


Senior CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty said his party was hopeful that the CBI would carry out a fair probe. "The court order has given the people of Bogtui a ray of hope that they will get justice," Leader of the Congress party in Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, said.


TMC state general secretary and spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said the state government had so far done everything to unravel the truth and arrested a number of people. The CBI's track record speaks volumes about its failure in solving cases and it is working at the behest of the BJP-led central government to corner opposition parties, he claimed. "We have seen how CBI has been used by the ruling dispensation to corner the opposition parties. So we don't feel that the CBI is an impartial agency. If BJP tries to use the CBI investigation to harass our leaders, there would be mass movements," he said.


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