HC forms SIT to probe Birbhum ind. Panchayat member murder

The Calcutta High Court today formed a four-member special investigation team, headed by ADG CID Ramphal Pawar, to probe the murder of an independent panchayat member in Birbhum district in which some Trinamool Congress leaders are accused.
Justice Dipankar Dutta directed that the special investigation team (SIT) would file an interim progress report after a fortnight, following which the matter would be heard again.
Apart from Pawar, the other three members of the team would be IGP CID Neeraj Kumar Singh, DSP CID Shankar Prasad Bhattacharya and inspector CID Tirthankar Sanyal.
Justice Dutta had earlier in the day asked state DGP G M P Reddy to suggest names of police officers who would investigate the murder to replace the present investigators from the CID after finding that almost no progress had been made by them.

Justice Dutta had asked the DGP to suggest the names after IPS officers Damayanti Sen and Soumen Mitra expressed their inability to investigate the case owing to various reasons.
Justice Dutta had earlier expressed displeasure at the shoddy investigation by the CID officers in the murder of Sagar Ghosh at Parui in Birbhum district.

The High Court had on December 23 ordered the CID to investigate murder charges against Birbhum district Trinamool Congress president Anubrata Mondal and 40 others, accused in the killing of Ghosh after the panchayat polls.
He was shot on July 21 last year at his home and succumbed to his injuries at a hospital two days later.

Ghosh had won a seat in the panchayat polls as an independent after being denied a ticket by the Trinamool Congress.
In response to a writ petition filed by Ghosh's relatives Nepal Roy and others, the High Court had ordered the CID to probe the case treating the complaint lodged by Ghosh's daughter-in-law Shibani on July 23 as FIR.