Sandeshkhali row: SC on West Bengal plea on CBI probe - why should state protect individual’s interest?

The Supreme Court of India on Mondayquestioned the West Bengal state government as to why it has come in as a petitioner before it for "protecting the interest" of some private individuals in the Sandeshkhali sex abuse and land grabbing case.It adjourned hearing on a special leave petition moved by the east Indian state's government.

The apex court was hearing the state government's plea challenging the Calcutta High Court's April 10 order which directed a CBI investigation into allegations of crimes against women and land grabbing in Sandeshkhali.

“Why should the state come in as a petitioner for protecting the interest of some private individuals?,” a bench of Justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta asked.

The counsel appearing for the state said it was aggrieved by some comments made in the high court order.

The bench of justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta adjourned the matter till July. The plea was made by the West Bengal government's counsel and senior advocate AM Singhvi.

The court further recorded the statement of West Bengal government counsel that the pending status of the petition will not be exploited or used for any other purposes.

The state government had moved the apex court stating that the Calcutta High Court erroneously ruled an order directing the CBI to probe and submit a report concerning the accusations made by the residents of Sandeshkhali.

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The high court had directed a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the allegations of land grabbing and sexual assault in Sandeshkhali.

The government pleaded in the top court that the high court order transgressed the culmination of probes into 43 FIRs, all leading to charge sheets.

It said that the sidelining of the state government's actions in favour of political voices risks bias in the investigation.

The government further said that the High Court decision had cast baseless imputations on the probes carried out by the State Police without taking into account the correct tangible matrix and the measures essayed by the petitioner state in diligently investigating all the FIRs.

TMC claims ammunition seized by CBI in Sandeshkhali could have been planted

Earlier this week, reacting to the cache of ammunition seized by CBI from West Bengal's Sandeshkhali, the ruling Trinamool Congress raised suspicions that the bombs could have been planted by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or National Security Guard (NSG) commandos.

This came after CBI conducted raids on locations tied to individuals suspected in the January 5 assault on an Enforcement Directorate team in which several officials were injured in Sandeshkhali when they set out to raid TMC leader Shah Jahan Sheikh's residence.

The party in a letter to the Election Commission of India on Friday (Apr 26) evening wrote, "It is astonishing to notice that media personnel were already present during such the raid even before the state administration arrived at the spot."

"At such point in time, it was already nationwide news that weapons had been recovered during the raid. There is no way of knowing with certainty, as to whether these weapons were indeed recovered during the search and seizure procedure or whether they were surreptitiously planted by the CBI/NSG," the letter further read.

(With inputs from agencies)