Attack On ED In West Bengal | High Court Constitutes SIT Comprising CBI & State Police Officials For Court-Monitored Probe

The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday constituted a special investigation team (SIT) comprising officers from the State police and Central Bureau of Investigation, to be headed by an officer of the rank of Superintendent of Police from both sides.

A single bench of Justice Jay Sengupta expressed a lack of confidence in the local police investigation and directed that no officers of the Jurisdictional Nazat Police Station should form part of the SIT. It said:

"FIR casts a serious shadow of doubt on the impartiality of the police officers of the Nazat Police Station. This is good enough reason to exclude at least the personnel of the Nazat Police Station or its outpost from conducting the investigating of the instant case. There are several other flaws in the investigation conducted by the State police. It is indeed quite astounding, to say the least, that the State police are having no information on the whereabouts of a prominent political leader of the locality like the accused Sajahan Sheikh and are unable to arrest him."

The Court expressed further surprise at the fact that no charges under Section 307 IPC or other serious provisions had been brought by the police and thus held that a pan-India organisation like the CBI would be able to better handle the investigation since one cannot rule out the possibility of any accused illegally crossing over to a neighbouring country.

Despite the injury report of one of the victims and his statement that he was hit by an accused with a stone on his head, no charge under Section 307 of the Penal Code was added. Other applicable serious provisions of law like dacoity, grievous hurt by dangerous means were also omitted from the FIR, it observed.

Accordingly, it formed an SIT led by Jaspreet Singh, IPS, presently posted as the Superintendent of Police, Islampur Police District, from the State's side and directed the CBI to nominate an SP level officer to lead the investigation from their end. 

The Court has directed the SIT to submit its first report on the 12th of February 2024.

These observations came in a plea by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) which had approached the Court after a mob of people attacked its officers who were about to carry out a raid on the residence of local leader Shahjahan Sheikh in connection with the multi-crore ration scam, earlier this month.

The ED had cast aspersions on the State police investigation before a coordinate bench which directed the State to explain inconsistencies in the multiple FIRs field before the jurisdictional police after the incident.

The Court had also directed for CCTV cameras to be placed outside the residence of Sheikh in light of the attack.

A division bench presided over by CJ TS Sivagnanam had earlier rejected a plea seeking a probe by the NIA/CBI into the incident. 

Case: ED v State of WB

Case No: WPA 802/2024

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