NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday set aside Calcutta High Court’s order which directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe into the attack on Minister of State (Home) Nisith Pramanik in Cooch Behar district on February 25. Minister’s convoy was attacked when he was visiting his constituency.
Noting that the HC did not consider the entirety of the facts, a bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI)DY Chandrachud, Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala asked the HC to consider the matter again.
The bench while setting aside HCs order took cognisance of the affidavit filed by the Superintendent of Police and the steps taken by the police authorities.
The top court also said that the HC did not make note of the 21 arrests, and registration of six specific cases of ransacking and damage, even though it was informed of it.
The HCs March 28, 2023 order was passed in a PIL instituted by Suvendhu Adhikari, MLA and LoP in West Bengal Assembly which alleged that the attack was at the behest of the TMC party and thus the police did not take any action against the perpetrators.
While directing CBI to probe into the attack the HC had said that the investigation is not heading in the right direction and thus it is necessary for the probe to be carried out by an independent agency.
“The incident is admitted and is of serious nature relating to the attack on a car and convoy of HMoS Union of India. Therefore, non-registration of the complaint promptly supports the apprehension in the mind of the petitioner. That apart, the complaint mentions the names of as many as 30 offenders, but no prompt action against them is reflected,” the HC had said in its order.
For the state, Senior Advocates AM Singhvi and Gopal Sankaranarayanan argued that the judgement has missed certain crucial aspects of the status report which show that the police were investigating.
For Adhikari, Senior Advocate PS Patwalia contended that the HC was justified in transferring the investigation as the incident took place on 25th Feb and the FIR lodged on 26th pertained to workers of BJP ransacking the office of the ruling political party.