In a major setback to the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal Government, the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday ordered a CBI probe into the Panrui murder case.
This comes after the Supreme Court ordered a probe by the central investigating agency after the Saradha scam. In both the cases, the State Government has been opposing an investigation by independent agencies.
The prayer by State counsel Kalyan Bandopadhyay for a stay on the order to allow the West Bengal Government to move an appeal was rejected by the court.
The court also directed the CBI to file the investigation reports from time to time.
Claiming that the probe carried out by a special investigation team (headed by the Director General of Police) was "one-sided" and "tainted with extraneous influences", Justice Harish Tandon held that the SIT probe was not carried out in a manner it should have been done.
The court was also critical of the role of the DGP and the fact that SIT had overlooked inflammatory speeches made by Trinamool Congress leaders ahead of Sagar Ghosh’s murder.
Called Panrui (a village in Birbhum district) murder case, the incident saw Sagar, an independent Panchayat member, being shot at by miscreants inside his house in July last year, just ahead of the Panchayat polls.
Ghosh’s son, Hriday, had moved court seeking an independent probe into the murder of his father.
Allegations were leveled against the Trinamool Congress’ Birbhum district President, Anubrata Mondal, and some other leaders as the prime accused.
Mondal, a few days before the murder, while addressing an election rally at Birbhum, had allegedly asked party workers to attack independent candidates and burn them unless they withdrew their nominations.