SC allows NIA to file chargesheet in Malda judicial officers case

The Supreme Court of India allowed the National Investigation Agency to file a charge sheet in the Malda judicial officers’ confinement case, while overseeing security concerns linked to West Bengal’s electoral roll revision process and ongoing investigation

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday permitted the NIA to file its charge sheet on completion of the investigation in the sensational incident of April 1 in West Bengal, in which seven judicial officers were illegally confined by a mob in Malda district.

As many as 700 judicial officers from West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand are deployed in the ongoing SIR process to deal with over 60 lakh objections of those excluded from the voter list.

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The top court had taken suo motu cognisance of a letter from the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court detailing a harrowing incident of April 1 night, where 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. Later, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the probe into the case on a complaint of the Election Commission at the instruction of the top court.

On Friday, a bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi was informed by Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for the NIA, that a fresh status report was filed by the probe agency giving details of the investigation carried so far.

The bench took note of the submissions of the law officer and said, “The NIA will be at liberty to file chargesheet in a court of competent jurisdiction.” It also permitted the NIA not to file any further status report in the case for the time being after Raju said that the investigators will be “neckdeep into the investigation”.

On April 13, the bench made it clear that the security cover provided to judicial officers engaged in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal will remain in place until the conclusion of the upcoming assembly election and cannot be withdrawn without its prior permission.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 of seven judicial officers “had any political background”, with the CJI saying “this has to be taken to a logical conclusion”.