Ex-IPS officer files plea in HC seeking CBI probe into CID

Former IPS officer Bharati Ghosh and her husband today filed a writ petition before the Calcutta High Court seeking CBI investigation into the state CID's search and seizure operations at their properties.
Ghosh, who was the superintendent of police of West Midnapore district, had resigned from service in December last year after being transferred.
She and her husband M A V Raju prayed for a probe by the CBI to find out who ordered the CID to investigate her or her husband and on what grounds, their counsel Jayanta Narayan Chatterjee said.
He claimed that though the names of Ghosh or her husband does not appear in the FIR, it needs to be established through a CBI probe on what grounds and on whose directions were the raids conducted at their properties.

The petitioners claimed that the CID had seized three laptops and several pen drives belonging to Ghosh. They demanded that these be opened in front of their lawyers or in their presence, their counsel said.
The petition is likely to come up for hearing before a bench of the high court later this week.

The CID had on February 3 said Rs 60 lakh in cash, over 2 kg gold, several land deeds, laptops, pen drives, hard disks, mobile phones and bank passbooks were recovered during the day-long raid at 12 locations the day before.
The CID did not, however, say whether it was investigating Ghosh or her husband.

The agency said it would verify whether a house at Naktala in south Kolkata, where it had conducted the search and seizure operations, belonged to Raju, the husband of the former IPS officer.
The CID is investigating a case of alleged extortion on the basis of a case filed by a businessman at Daspur police station in West Midnapore.
CID spokesperson DIG Nishant Pervez said the district police authorities had referred the case to the CID, which then began investigation into it.
While four persons were named in the complaint, CID investigations were being held against seven persons which include six police personnel of lower ranks and a civilian.

The civilian, Bimal Garai, is the only one who have been arrested so far in connection with the case.
Ghosh, who was the West Midnapore superintendent of police for more than six years, was transferred as commandant of the third battalion of the state armed police on December 26 last year. She resigned from service two days later.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2014, she was transferred from the post of West Midnapore SP by the Election Commission, but was reinstated later by the state government.
She was also awarded the chief minister's commendable service medal on August 15, 2014 and

Ghosh was made an officer on special duty (Left Wing Extremism) by the state government a few months before the 2016 Assembly election.
The poll panel again transferred her to the state CID but she was posted back again as the West Midnapore SP by the state government after the election process was over.