New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday sought a response from the West Bengal government on a plea seeking CBI probe into the killing of two BJP workers in the post-poll violence in the state.
A bench of Justices Vineet Saran and B.R. Gavai issued notice to the state government on a plea by Biswajit Sarkar, brother of deceased BJP worker Abhijit Sarkar, who was allegedly murdered and the co-petitioner Swaranalata Adhikari, whose husband Haran Adhikari, was also killed in the violence allegedly connected with the poll. Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress secured a landslide victory in the 2021 Assembly elections for its third term.
The top court posted the matter for further hearing on May 25 and asked senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for the petitioners, to serve the copy of the petition on the standing counsel of the state government.
The plea urged the top court to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the murder of Sarkar and Adhikari, with the petitioners stating they were eye-witnesses to the incident.
Jethmalani submitted that the murders took place when election results were declared in West Bengal. He added that there is total inaction by state and police have tried to subvert the investigation.
He submitted that police stood idle. “No one helped and they were left to die. It was at the behest of the state administration,” he added. The top court said: “We issue notice. Serve it to the state. We will hear it next Tuesday.”
Jethmalani said that Sarkar’s body has not been cremated and the court may direct that post mortem should be conducted and it should be videographed. He urged the court to pass directions to the state authorities to not to cremate the body till the next date of hearing as this is what the family wants. However, the bench did not pass any directions on these submissions.
