Post-election violence in Bengal: Calcutta HC has formed a 3-member SIT to probe cases of grievous hurt or incapacitation, arson, vandalism, damage to property, threats, criminal intimidation.
Post-election violence in Bengal: A bench of five members of the Calcutta High Court on Thursday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate serious cases of murders, sexual assaults on women, and allegations of rape during the violence which took place immediately after West’s results Bengal assembly elections were declared on May 2.
The bench, headed by Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal, has also formed a Special Investigative Team (SIT), to examine other cases related to post-election violence across the state. The investigation will be monitored by the court.
The two agencies have been asked to submit their reports in six weeks.
In its order, the HC appointed three IPS officers serving in Bengal as members of the SIT. They are Suman Bala Sahoo, Soumen Mitra, and Ranveer Kumar.
The cases they will investigate include those of serious injury or disability, arson, vandalism, property damage, threats, and criminal intimidation.
A retired Supreme Court judge will oversee the work of the SIT, for which a separate order will be issued later, the court said.
The SIT will be headed by Sahoo, the oldest of the three who is the director-general of the police. Mitra, an officer in the rank of Additional Director General, is currently the Kolkata Police Commissioner. Kumar is also an ADG rank officer.
According to the court order, SIT is to investigate 388 FIRs for serious injury or incapacity, 609 FIRs for arson, vandalism, and looting, and 130 FIRs for intimidation – a large part of them against the ruling Trinamool Congress.
Here is a detailed look at the three agents in charge of the big investigation:
Suman Bala Sahoo
The IPS officer for the 1987 batch is the DGP, Telecommunications, and is the only female IPS officer to hold such a rank in West Bengal today.
Formerly Co-Director of the Kolkata CBI Unit from 2010 to 2015, Sahoo has long worked in investigative agencies and her career has remained uncontroversial.
Prior to joining the CBI, Sahoo was a deputy commissioner in the Kolkata Police Detective Department and also worked at the CID as a special superintendent.
While holding the central deputy in 2010, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee recalled her after winning state elections for the first time in 2011, according to reports. Sahoo, however, only returned to her original setting after completing her five-year term at the CBI.
She was then appointed ADG, Wellness, and later promoted GM, Wellness.
Soumen Mitra
Mitra was recently appointed Kolkata Police Commissioner for the second time in his career. Previously, Mitra was ADG, Training, from May 2016 to February 2021.
Mitra had also served as DC, Detective Department, Kolkata Police, and IG, CID, for several years.
In the 2016 parliamentary elections, India’s Election Commission dismissed Kolkata Police Chief Rajeev Kumar, who had allegations of corruption and politically motivated against him, and posted Mitra to his post. square.
However, he was removed from his post the same year after Mamata Banerjee returned to power and Rajeev Kumar was reinstated.
In February 2021, Banerjee again appointed Mitra as commissioner. He was also one of three IPS officers who received the Chief Minister’s Police Medal for Outstanding Service on August 15 of this year.
Ranveer Kumar
Batch IPS officer from 1990, Kumar is now ADG, Administration, West Bengal Police Directorate.
He was previously Inspector General of the North Bengal Police; ADG-Prisons, and ADG, Armed Police.
