KOLKATA: The West Bengal government on Thursday moved an appeal before a division bench of the Calcutta High Court challenging a single bench order that directed the transfer of investigation into a Congress councillor's murder from the state police to the CBI.
The government sought an urgent hearing on its appeal.
Tapan Kandu, the Congress councillor of Purulia's Jhalda municipality, was shot dead by assailants on March 13 near his residence.
The bench, headed by Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava, said that the prayer for hearing the state's appeal against the single bench order will be considered.
Kandu's wife Purnima had moved the single bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha seeking transfer of the murder probe from the state police to the CBI, alleging complicity of the inspector in-charge of Jhalda police station in the death of her husband.
The counsel for Purnima had submitted before the court of Justice Mantha that the superintendent of police in Purulia district, during a press conference on April 3, gave a clean chit to the inspector in-charge even before the completion of the probe.
Ordering a CBI probe on April 4, Justice Mantha had said that the transfer of the investigation to the central agency was necessary in view of the dicta of the honourable Supreme Court that "it must be clearly evident and apparent to the common public at large that there is indeed honest, transparent and just investigation into the crime in question."
The single bench had noted that one of the accused in the case is a member of the ruling party and another an officer of the state police.
The judge observed that the investigation being conducted by the West Bengal Police, where the prosecution would also rest in the state, may not send across a proper message.