Supreme Court Notice To Centre On Bengal's Plea Against CBI Probe Over Post-Poll Violence

The Supreme Court today asked the Centre and others to respond to the West Bengal government's appeal against the Calcutta High Court order directing court-monitored CBI probe into the cases of rape and murder during the post-poll violence in the state.

A bench comprising Justices Vineet Saran and Aniruddha Bose, however, refused to direct the CBI that it should not register any more FIRs in such cases, saying no order should be passed without hearing the other side.

"You have made out the case for issuance of the notice," the bench told senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the state government. The Supreme Court has now fixed the case for next hearing on October 7.

The Mamata Banerjee-led state government is aggrieved by the high court verdict.

A five-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court had ordered a CBI investigation into all the alleged cases of heinous crimes in West Bengal after the assembly poll results this year, in which the ruling Trinamool came back to power, after accepting the recommendations of an NHRC panel.

As regards other criminal cases related to post-poll violence, the high court had directed that they be investigated by a Special Investigation Team under the monitoring of the court.
 

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