HC told woman torture case to be handed over to CID

West Bengal government today informed the Calcutta High Court that it would hand over to CID the case of alleged torture of a woman by police personnel in Birbhum district.
State Additional Advocate General Lakshmi Gupta informed the court of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice Joymalyo Bagchi that the state has decided to hand over the investigation to CID to ensure free and fair probe as the allegations were against district police personnel.
Appearing for the victim, counsel Firoze Edulji submitted that the state police was not investigating the matter and the alleged torture on the woman should be treated as a case of gangrape under Section 376(D) of IPC, which was formulated after the Nirbhaya case in Delhi in December 2012.

The division bench directed the victim's counsel to move the appropriate bench of the court over alleged police inaction while keeping the matter open before it.
The bench said the petition cannot be considered as a PIL as the victim and the de facto complainant in the criminal case had herself moved the court and as such the proper bench entrusted with jurisdiction in such matters should be approached.
A woman, stated to be the relative of a BJP activist wanted in connection with a bomb attack case, had filed charges of being forcibly taken to police station by policemen after a raid at her Ilambazar residence in Birbhum district yesterday.

In his complaint Seikh Sabur, husband of the woman, said the police took away his wife, Haitunneshwa Bibi from her parents' house in Kalmadanga village under Ilambazar Police Station on Saturday night after failing to trace BJP activist Mithun Seikh, allegedly Bibi's nephew.