SC to hear govt plea against Calcutta HC order on Bengal poll violence – Hindustan Times

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear on September 20 the West Bengal government’s plea against a Calcutta high court order directing court-monitored probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into allegations of rape, murder and attempt to murder during the post-poll violence earlier this year.

The court’s decision came after the Mamata Banerjee-led government cast aspersions on the members of the committee formed by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), on whose recommendations the high court ordered the probe.

Appearing for the state, senior advocate Kapil Sibal told a bench of justices Vineet Saran and Aniruddha Bose: “Look at the committee that gathered facts about the incidents and submitted a report to the high court. It was headed by Rajiv Jain who served as the Intelligence Bureau chief under the present government at the Centre till 2019. He was earlier joint director of IB when Prime Minister Narendra Modi served as Gujarat chief minister,” Sibal said.

The state’s counsel also alleged “bias” by two other members in the committee – Atif Rashid, vice chairman of National Minorities Commission and Rajulben Desai, a member of National Commission for Women.