Calcutta High Court Seeks State Govt's Response On Plea Seeking CBI Probe Into Singer KK's Death

The Calcutta High Court on Monday sought the State government's response on a batch of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petitions seeking an investigation into the death of singer-composer Krishnakumar Kunnath popularly known as KK, who passed away on May 31, 2022, hours after performing in a concert at Kolkata.

The leading playback singer was in the city for a two-day concert at Nazrul Mancha as part of the Gurudas College fest organized by the TMC's student union.

His post-mortem report suggested that he had "prolonged cardiac issues". Opposition parties, however, claimed that crowd mismanagement at the Gurudas College concert may have played a role in aggravating his cardiac problems.

One of the PILs also sought for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the ground that there had been utter mismanagement by the authorities at Nazrul Manch and that negligence on the part of the local administration was one of the reasons behind the chaos. 

It was further contended that the authorities had permitted close to 7500 persons to enter the auditorium at Nazrul Manch although the seating capacity is restricted to only 2400. It was also alleged that carbon-monoxide gas had been sprayed inside the auditorium premises. 

Another plea questioned the disbursal of close to Rs 30 lakhs to the student union for organising the event on the ground that no student union elections had been held after 2013 and that such a student union was a unit of a political party. 

Advocate General S.N Mookherjee appearing for the State government however questioned the maintainability of the petitions by contending that not a single complaint had been lodged by the family members of the deceased singer against the progress of the investigation as a result of which the demand for a CBI enquiry does not stand. 

Pursuant to the rival submissions, a Bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj directed the State government to file an affidavit-in-opposition responding to the allegations within a period of 3 weeks. Any reply was directed to be filed within one week thereafter. 

 Case Title: Imtiaz Ahmed v. State of West Bengal and other connected matters