Calcutta HC extends stay on CBI probe on panchayat member's murder

The Calcutta High Court Monday extended the stay of a single bench order directing a CBI investigation into a murder case in West Bengal's Birbhum district in which a leader of the ruling Trinamool Congress is allegedly involved.

Hearing an appeal filed by the Mamata Banerjee-led state government, the division bench of Justices Jayanta Biswas and I.C. Das directed that the stay on CBI probe be extended till Oct 27.

Observing that the investigation by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by state Director General of Police G.M.P. Reddy was "tainted by extraneous influence", the bench of Justice Harish Tandon Sep 24 had directed the CBI to probe all aspects of the murder of Sagar Ghosh, that took place in Birbhum district in July last year.

Contending that there are no evidence to suggest that the SIT investigation was influenced, the state government Sep 25 moved the division bench challenging Justice Tandon's order.

Hearing the appeal, the court had Sep 26 stayed Justice Tandon's order till Monday.

Ghosh, an independent panchayat member, was killed in 2013, days after Birbhum Trinamool president Anubrata Mondal gave an inflammatory speech inciting party workers to resort to violence against independent candidates and hurl bombs at the police if they were prevented.

While Mondal was named in the first information report (FIR) by the victim's family, the SIT dropped his name from the charge sheet that it filed before a court in Birbhum, which is hearing the murder case.