Court orders CID probe in Tapas Paul's rape remarks

The order by the court of Justice Dipankar Dutta came in a PIL seeking criminal proceedings

The Calcutta High Court Monday ordered the West Bengal CID to probe and submit a report regarding the rape-and-violence remarks made by Trinamool Congress parliamentarian Tapas Paul, a counsel said.

The order by the court of Justice Dipankar Dutta came in a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking criminal proceedings against the Lok Sabha member from Krishnanagar who was caught on successive tapes exhorting people in his constituency in Nadia district to kill activists of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and rape their women.

"The court has ordered the director general of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to probe the matter and submit a report by Sep 1. It has also directed police to treat an earlier complaint filed in this regard as an FIR," petitioner's counsel Subrata Mukherjee said.

"Expressing displeasure over a lawmaker turning a lawbreaker, Justice Dutta said the probe will be conducted as per the directions of the court," Mukherjee said.

Paul was caught on tapes asking his party activists to prove themselves by killing CPI-M activists even as he himself asserted that he would gun down his rivals and let loose his "boys" to rape the Marxist women.

Notwithstanding the countrywide clamour for Paul's arrest and expulsion from parliament, the Trinamool has sought to end the matter with an apology which he tendered to his party and the media.