West Bengal Post-Poll Violence: Calcutta High Court appoints Ex-Chief Justice Manjula Chellur to head the SIT probe

  

On Friday, Former Chief Justice of Calcutta high court Justice Manjula Chellur will head the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the court to probe allegations of post-poll violence pertaining to various criminal cases other than those related to murder, rape and crimes against women.

A five-judge bench comprising of acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and justices IP Mukerji, Harish Tandon, Soumen Sen and Subrata Talukdar made modification to its August 19 order that stated: “The working of the SIT shall be overviewed by a retired Hon’ble Judge of the Hon’ble Supreme Court…”

The bench on Friday held: “On account of immediate non-availability of a retired Supreme Court judge to take up the assignment, we deem it appropriate to modify the aforesaid part of the order while adding that the working of the SIT is to be monitored by a retired Chief Justice of a high court.”

The bench directed the state government to pay Rs 10 lakh to Justice Chellur for the assignment. Over and above, the retired Chief Justice would be entitled to travel from her place of stay (Karnataka) to any place in connection with her assignment. The court directed the chief secretary to extend all facilities to Justice Chellur.

Justice Chellur will monitor the functioning of the SIT the court had formed with three IPS officers of the Bengal cadre, namely Suman Bala Sahoo, Soumen Mitra and Ranveer Kumar. Following the HC order, the state government on September 1 appointed 10 IPS officers to assist the SIT.

The larger bench on Friday also took note of the state government moving the Supreme Court challenging the high court order on August 19 directing a “court-monitored” CBI probe into cases related to murder, rape and crimes against women.

The state, in the petition before the Supreme Court, said it did not expect a fair probe as the CBI was acting at the behest of the Centre and was busy booking Trinamool functionaries. The bench observed:

“The institutional independence of the agencies should be of paramount consideration and should be maintained throughout at all costs.”

 

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(With input from news agency language)

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