Sandeshkhali violence: Supreme Court agrees to consider listing PIL for court-monitored probe

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider listing of a PIL seeking a court-monitored probe by the CBI or a special investigation team, and transfer of the matter related to the alleged sexual assault of women in Sandeshkhali from West Bengal to Delhi.

The plea filed by advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava was mentioned before a bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud.

The petitioner also sought a direction for setting up a committee of three retired judges of the High Courts, in line with the committee formed in Manipur cases.

The committee should be asked to enquire into the nature of violence against women that occurred in the village Sandeshkhali, from all available sources including personal meetings with survivors, members of the families of survivors, local/community representatives, authorities in charge of relief camps and the FIRs lodged as well as media reports and to submit a report to this court on the steps required to meet the needs of the survivors, it said.

The petitioner also sought a direction for providing compensation to the victims and deployment of the central para military personnel for protection of the victims and witnesses.

Srivastava contended "deeply disturbing allegations" of sexual assault of the women of Sandeshkhali by the leaders of the ruling party of West Bengal are evident from a perusal of the relevant portions of the order by the Calcutta High Court on February 13, 2024.

"For quite some time now, three notorious criminals of the locality namely, S K Shajahan, Shiba Prasad Hazra and Uttam Sardar, all belonging to the ruling political dispensation, had been torturing the inhabitants of the area in various ways," the HC had said.

"The miscreants would take away women from the locality in the midst of night to their offices and sexually exploit them. No complaint was taken by the local police authorities. In fact, often the police would refer the complainant to the said Shiba," the HC had added.

The petitioner contended on January 5, 2024, when a team of Enforcement Directorate officers went to raid Sheikh’s house in Sandeshkhali in connection with alleged irregularities in the PDS scheme then the officers were attacked, leaving three of them badly injured. "Thereafter, very strangely, FIR was filed against the ED officials themselves by the state police," the plea said.

As per news report, at least five victims have claimed that they had faced the incidents of molestation by the accused persons but they kept silent out of fear, it added.

"The National Commission of Women has shockingly found in its enquiry that the police has filed complaints against the relatives of women victims instead of filing their complaints and that the said victims are being threatened by local police," it alleged.

There is more than a reasonable apprehension that the helpless victims will not get justice if the investigation is left to be conducted by the West Bengal Police due to the involvement of their own police officials and due to their utterly biased approach, it contended.