Calcutta High Court to monitor investigations in the Kamduni rape and murder case

Kolkata: The gangrape and murder of a 20-year-old at West Bengal's Kamduni village is becoming a nightmare for Mamata Banerjee.

Following public outrage over the brutal rape and murder of a college girl on June 7, the Chief Minister promised that the Criminal Investigation Department or CID would file a charge sheet in 15 days.

It took 22 days, but the 147-page chargesheet was apparently so slipshod, that the trial judge asked in court - 'is this a chargesheet?'

Outside the CID office in Kolkata and at Kamduni today, there were angry protests against the CID and demands for a CBI probe

The most glaring discrepancy in the charge sheet: 7 men arrested in the case have been accused of gangrape but the case diary says only one of them kidnapped, raped and killed the girl.

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Another huge lapse - the chargesheet was filed without the forensic report. According to police sources, it takes six weeks for a full report but the CID went ahead without it just to make Mamata Banerjee's deadline.

Hearing a PIL today, the Calcutta High Court said it will monitor the probe and lauded the trial court's stern stand. Without naming Mamata Banerjee, the court described her promise of a chargesheet within 15 days as populist.

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Directing the CID to file a final probe report on July 30, the court said the "judiciary will not succumb to such public pressure but act impartially to ensure that accused are defended by lawyers and no innocent is falsely implicated."