Why The Trinamool Is Upset And Wary Of Calcutta HC Ordering SIT Probe Into Kaliaganj Death

The Trinamool government in Bengal suffered another setback with the Calcutta High Court ordering a probe by a three-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the death of a teenage girl at Kaliaganj in Uttar Dinajpur district last month.

That death, and shoddy police investigations, sparked widespread protests that resulted in the death of a 32-year-old man in police firing. 

Justice Rajsekhar Mantha of the Calcutta High Court ordered the formation of a three-member SIT team comprising former CBI additional director Upendranath Biswas, former Inspector General of Police (IGP) of Bengal Pankaj Datta and Special Commissioner of Kolkata Police, Damayanti Sen to probe the death of the teenage girl. 

The Girl’s Death And Its Aftermath

The girl’s body was found floating in a pond on 21 April, a day after she had gone missing. Her family alleged she was raped before being murdered. 

The police allegedly delayed the registration of an FIR and, say locals, tried to shield prime accused Javed Akhtar, 20, who the girl reportedly knew. 

The family of the victim and other locals staged protests with the body of the girl demanding a CBI probe. The police confronted the protesters and dragged away the body of the girl (watch the video in this tweet), triggering another controversy and widespread condemnation. 

The BJP organised mass protests all over the state alleging that the police were trying to shield the main accused. The Trinamool reacted angrily, accusing the BJP of playing politics over an unfortunate death. 

The protests in Kaliaganj intensified after police suggested that the girl had died after consuming poison. The police claimed a bottle of poison was recovered from the edge of the pond where her body was found. 

Angry mobs attacked police vehicles and torched the Kaliaganj Police Station 25 April evening. The police started conducting raids to nab some key BJP functionaries behind the protests. 

In one such raid in the small hours of 27 April, 32-year-old Mritunjay Barman, a close relative of a BJP leader, was shot dead by the police. 

The family of this man accused an assistant sub-inspector of police, Moyajjem Hossain, of killing Mritunjay without any provocation. 

The two deaths have created a lot of resentment within the Rajbongshi community in north Bengal. Both the dead were Rajbongshis, a community that has supported the BJP and is now being actively wooed by Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek. 

The Court Order

Justice Rajsekhar Mantha of the Calcutta High Court passed the order after noticing a series of anomalies and shortcomings in the police investigation into the case. 

He noted that the police failed to ensure the presence of the family members of the girl during the inquest and postmortem. 

Justice Mantha also took exception to the autopsy being conducted after sundown and refused to accept the police’s explanation that it was done since there was apprehension of trouble. 

Justice Mantha also noted the failure of the police to explain some glaring discrepancies between the inquest and postmortem reports, particularly the time and place where they were conducted. 

The order to constitute the SIT to probe the death was issued “to restore the faith of the family (of the girl) and the public at large in the investigation”. 

Justice Mantha, while debarring the three SIT members from making any public comments on the case during the course of their investigation, also asked them to file a preliminary report on the next date of hearing 28 June. 

Why The Trinamool Is Upset

The Trinamool is very upset with the constitution of the SIT. 

Upendranath Biswas, who retired as the Joint Director of the CBI, is known to be a stickler for rules and is honest and upright.

He was the one who investigated the fodder scam and resisted political pressure to file foolproof chargesheets that led to the conviction of Lalu Prasad Yadav and others in the scam. 

After retiring from service, he joined the Trinamool and won the 2011 Assembly elections from Bagda in North 24 Parganas district. He was made the minister for welfare of backward classes by Mamata Banerjee and served in that capacity till 2016. 

But he grew disillusioned with the Trinamool and resigned from the party. Since then, he has been vocal against the Trinamool’s corruption and misgovernance.

He is credited with exposing the cash for jobs scam in the state school education department that has landed many Trinamool leaders and functionaries behind bars and severely tarnished the reputation of the ruling party. 

Former IPS officer Pankaj Datta is a vocal critic of the Mamata Banerjee government. He is regarded as an honest and upright officer with an unblemished service record. Datta, say his colleagues, had always conducted himself very professionally. 

Commenting on his appointment as a member of the SIT, Trinamool’s chief spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said: “Can criticising the government in the media be the only criterion for being made a member of the SIT? Is there a shortage of experienced and retired IPS officers in Bengal?” 

Referring to Datta, the Trinamool spokesperson wondered what special investigative powers and acumen Datta possessed that motivated the Calcutta HC to make him a member of the SIT. 

Ghosh argued that since the Calcutta High Court questions and opposes various appointments made by the state government, appointments made by the High Court also need to be questioned. 

As for Damayanti Sen, the Trinamool is not very comfortable with her. Sen has a fiercely independent streak and it is common knowledge that she is disliked by Mamata Banerjee. 

Sen invited the Chief Minister’s ire by cracking the Park Street rape case which Mamata Banerjee had described as sajano ghotona (concocted incident). A woman was raped by five young men who picked her up from a popular night club on Kolkata’s Park Street on 5 February 2012. 

The Kolkata Police initially refused to accept her complaint and following a public outcry, the investigation was handed over to city police’s Detective Department. Sen, who was the joint commissioner (crime) of Kolkata Police, cracked the case, thus proving Mamata Banerjee wrong. 

An angry Banerjee shunted Sen off to the inconsequential post of DIG (Training). Since then, Sen has never got a plum posting and has been regarded with a great deal of suspicion by the Chief Minister and her ministerial as well as party colleagues. 

But Sen is well-regarded as an uncompromising, honest and upright officer who goes by the rule book and refuses to bow down to politicians. She is also known for her investigative skills. 

The Trinamool, thus, is very uncomfortable with the composition of the SIT. It is wary that the three members of the SIT will act professionally and independently, and that can result in another indictment of the district police which allegedly been trying to pass off the death of the girl as suicide. 

If the SIT’s findings run contrary to what the district police, and the Trinamool, has been saying, it will come as yet another embarrassment for Mamata Banerjee and her government. 

The case is highly sensitive since the victim belonged to the Rajbongshi community that Mamata Banerjee has been trying to wean away from the BJP. 

If the SIT finds foul play in the death, the community’s anger against the state government will only intensify and that can result in an adverse outcome in the forthcoming panchayat polls.