KOLKATA: The West Bengal Director General of Police (DGP) today told the Calcutta High Court that chargesheet was filed by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the Parui murder case without taking leave of the court, which is monitoring the investigation, as per legal advise given by a state counsel.
DGP G M P Reddy, who appeared before the court personally as per its direction to explain why chargesheet was filed without taking its leave, told Justice Harish Tandon that as statutory custody period of one of the main accused in the murder of independent panchayat member Sagar Ghosh was getting over, legal advise was taken which said that chargesheet be filed before the trial court.
Asked by Justice Tandon that whether he felt he should have taken leave of this court before filing the chargesheet as the case was being monitored by it, the DGP said that he took legal opinion from state advocate which he said indicated that the court had not passed any order restraining the SIT from filing the chargesheet.
Justice Dipankar Dutta, who was earlier hearing the petition seeking independent investigation into the murder as ruling party leaders and supporters were among the accused, had formed the SIT involving CID officials and headed by the DGP himself on February 14 and had directed it to file reports on progress of investigation into the matter.
Reddy submitted that as per the legal advise, he had asked the SIT to file the chargesheet before the trial court at Siuri in Birbhum district.
Asked whether he felt that chargesheet should have been filed against Anubrata Mondal, one of the accused and Birbhum district president of Trinamool Congress, the DGP said that his speech pertained to another case which was being investigated.
Mondal was among 41 persons named in the FIR by Shibani Ghosh, daughter in-law of Sagar Ghosh, and was accused of making inflammatory speeches, near their house a few days before the murder, against anyone challenging the writ of the ruling party.
A separate case of making inflammatory speech was lodged against Mondal.
Justice Tandon asked the DGP whether he did not think that these two cases were related and should be investigated accordingly, Reddy said this happened four to five days before the murder and that these two were not felt to be related.
After hearing the DGP, Justice Tandon passed an order exonerating the DGP from personal appearance till further orders.
The judge noted in his order that as per the DGP, Shibani Ghosh's statement did not disclose any involvement of Mondal in commission of the offence and therefore his name was not included in the chargesheet which was filed against eight persons.
Justice Tandon also noted that on asked what step has been taken against Mondal, the DGP stated that a separate case has been instituted against Mondal and investigation has been going on.
He further noted that the legal advise taken by the DGP was received in oral form and there was no written document.
Sagar Ghosh was a former Trinamool Congress member who had fought and won as an independent in the 2013 panchayat elections after allegedly being denied a ticket by his party.
Ghosh had suffered bullet wounds when he was at his home in Badnabagram village under Parui police station area in Birbhum on the night of July 21 and succumbed to his injuries two days later.