'Gherao' of judicial officers in Bengal: Supreme Court asks NIA to complete probe within two months

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to complete within two months its probe into the April 1 violence in West Bengal's Malda district in which a mob confined seven judicial officers for nine hours.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said the NIA should file its report before the court of competent jurisdiction after completing the investigation.

"What is the position of investigation? Is it complete?" the bench asked. Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for the NIA, said he would file a detailed status report.

"We are, however, of the view that let the NIA complete the investigation at the earliest, preferably within a period of two months...," the bench said.

"You file your charge sheet. The law will take its own course," it observed.

On April 24, the top court permitted the NIA to file its chargesheet on completion of investigation in the case.

As many as 700 judicial officers from West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand were deployed in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process to deal with over 60 lakh objections of those excluded from the voter list.

The top court had taken suo motu cognisance of a letter from the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court detailing the harrowing events of the night of April 1 when seven judicial officers, including three women, and a five-year-old child were held captive by a mob for over nine hours without food or water.

The NIA later took over the probe into the case on a complaint of the Election Commission at the instruction of the top court.

On April 13, the bench made it clear that the security cover provided to judicial officers engaged in the SIR of electoral rolls in West Bengal would remain in place until the conclusion of the assembly election and cannot be withdrawn without its prior permission.

It also wanted to know if those arrested by the NIA for the April 1 gherao "had any political background". The CJI had said, "This has to be taken to a logical conclusion."