No coercive action against CBI officers in Lalan Sheikh custodial death: HC to CID

The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday directed the West Bengal CID not to take any coercive action against CBI officers named in a police case filed in connection with the custodial death of Lalan Sheikh, the main accused in the Rampurhat massacre.

Allowing the CID to continue its probe on the FIR lodged by Lalan's wife Reshma Bibi, Justice Jay Sengupta directed that the investigation, especially the recording of statements and seizures, be videographed.

The court, on a prayer by the CBI, directed the CID not to take any coercive action against the central agency's officers till further orders.

Justice Sengupta also directed that no final report in the investigation will be submitted by the CID without the leave of this court.

The court noted that the post-mortem report of Lalan's body states "violent mechanical asphyxia" as the cause of the death. It also mentions ligature marks and bruises on the body.

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Lalan, the main accused in the killing of 10 people in Rampurhat's Bogtui village, was arrested by the CBI on December 3 and was in its custody for questioning on the orders of a local court.

He was found hanging in the washroom of the CBI camp office in Rampurhat on Monday. The CBI claimed that he died by suicide.

In her complaint filed with the Rampurhat police station in Birbhum district, Lalan's wife alleged that her husband was murdered, and she named several CBI officers.

The court held that she must be heard in the CBI's application for transfer of the case to NHRC's director general or to the CBI itself.

The court said that she be given a notice to be represented on Wednesday when the matter will be taken up for hearing again.

The judge, however, observed that it was uncanny to see the names of CBI officers probing other high-profile cases in West Bengal in the FIR.

Moving the petition, CBI counsel DP Singh submitted that the FIR was too well-drafted for a rustic woman, and questioned how officers probing cases other than the massacre in Birbhum were named.

The West Bengal government's lawyers questioned the maintainability of the petition since CBI has not made the state police or the complainant party in the petition.

The court kept the question of a second post-mortem of Lalan's body open.

At least 10 people were killed as their houses in the Bogtui village were allegedly firebombed in the dead of the night on March 21 after the murder of local TMC leader Bhadu Sheikh.