The CBI’s Special Crime Branch has been assigned to 43 cases of post-election violence in West Bengal. There have been 29 rapes and 12 killings so far.
Meanwhile, the Kolkata High Court has set a six-week deadline for the preliminary report to be submitted to the investigative agency.
Four special teams have already been constituted, including Akhilesh Kumar Singh, the DIG of the CBI Eastern Zone. He has been assigned additional responsibilities as Head of Branch, Special Crime Branch, in addition to his duties as DIG Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB).
According to CBI sources, the team will gather FIRs from state police as well as papers from the courts in various cases. They’ll look over the case file and interview the complainants and witnesses. For recording statements, they’ll start with CRPC 161 and then go on to CRPC 164. The discrepancy of statements in relation to the initial case will be investigated as well.
According to CBI sources, the CBI will look into the districts where the superintendents of police (SPs) have given case details so far regarding post-poll violence (murder, rape, violence against women). The State Police and the Police Commissionerate officers met with the CBI officers and shared information about post-poll violence cases in their area.
Biswajit Sarkar, a BJP activist from Narkeldanga, was summoned to the CBI headquarters for questioning on Monday. New information has also been received, including footage from Abhijit Sarkar’s grandfather Biswajit Sarkar’s phone, which was killed. The footage is said to contain records of the incident. Biswajit had also summoned certain IPS officers in Lalbazar at the time of the incident.
For further investigation, a special CBI team will be dispatched to the districts impacted by post-poll violence.
