Sandeshkhali ED attack case: Supreme Court upholds Calcutta HC order on CBI probe

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the West Bengal government's plea challenging the Calcutta High Court order transferring the probe of the Sandeshkhali violence case to the CBI.

The court was hearing the matter related to the attack on teams of the Enforcement Directorate and Central Armed Police Forces on January 5.

It also came down heavily on the Mamata Banerjee government over the delay in the arrest of former TMC leader Shajahan Sheikh, the alleged mastermind behind the attack.

A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta, however, agreed to expunge remarks against the West Bengal Police in the high court judgement.

The bench noted the submission of Additional Solicitor General SV Raju that he has no objection to the expunction of the remarks if the final order transferring the probe to CBI remains as it is.

During the hearing, the bench posed several questions to senior advocate Jaideep Gupta, representing the West Bengal police, as to why suspended TMC leader Shahjahan Sheikh was not promptly arrested after the January 5 attack and why was there a delay in the investigation of the case.

Raju contended if the investigation was not handed over to the CBI, the probe by the state police will be a farce.

On March 6, the West Bengal government had approached the top court seeking urgent listing of its petition challenging the high court order, but failed to elicit prompt relief.

The state government, in its plea before the apex court, dubbed the high court order as perverse, illegal, and arbitrary which deserves to be set aside.

"It is most respectfully submitted that the Impugned Order was pronounced by the Division Bench at 3 pm and uploaded on the High Court website by 3.30 pm (approx.), but the directions contained therein required the Petitioner/State Govt. to comply with such directions by 4.30 pm on the self same day i.e. March 5, 2024 which effectively frustrated the Petitioner's right to avail its remedy under Article 136 of the Constitution.

"In fact, the Advocate General appearing for the Petitioner State orally prayed seeking stay on the operation of the Impugned Order for three days to avail such legal remedy but the Division Bench not only rejected such prayer but refused to record the same in the Impugned Order," the state government said.

The high court had last week asked Bengal police to hand over Shahjahan's custody to the central agency. It had also come down heavily on the state police. The Supreme Court today expunged the high court's observations on Bengal police.

(With PTI inputs)

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