Kolkata rape-murder: SC stays order for probe into claims of custodial torture

The Supreme Court SC on Monday stayed an order passed by the Calcutta High Court HC directing a Central Bureau of Investigation CBI probe into the alleged custodial torture of a woman arrested during a protest against the Kolkata rapemurderAccording to news agency PTI a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan asked the West Bengal Government to submit a list of seven Indian Police Service IPS officers including five women who could be included in a fresh Special Investigation Team SIT for probing the custodial torture caseThe order was passed on an appeal filed by the West Bengal Government which had stated the HC had erroneously passed the order directing a CBI probe and that the state police was capable of the investigationOn November 6 a division bench of the Calcutta HC upheld an order of a single judge directing a CBI investigation into the allegations levelled by the protestorThe bench said that the order of the single bench for conducting an independent investigation cannot be faulted and does not call for any interferenceAccording to PTI HC dismissed the appeal made by the West Bengal Government and directed the central probe agency to comply with the order of the single benchTwo petitioners both women had moved the single bench of HC alleging physical torture in police custody The court took into consideration a report of a jail doctor who found signs of hematoma a solid swelling of clotted blood within tissue on the legs of one of themOn October 8 the single bench directed CBI to conduct a thorough investigation into the allegation of physical torture in police custodyHearing an appeal by the West Bengal Government challenging the single bench order the division bench of HC said that after hearing both the state and the petitioner it found that the order passed by the single judge was just and proper and did not call for any interferenceThe first and most startling fact which has greatly disturbed our mind is the discrepancy in the recording of the medical condition of the petitioner by two different authorities the bench saidThe woman was arrested on September 7 and remained in the custody of Falta Police Station in the Diamond Harbour Police District till she was remanded in judicial custody by the Diamond Harbour Court the next day HC notedAccording to PTI the division bench said that while the report of the medical officer of Diamond Harbour subcorrectional home states hematoma in both legs of Das the examining doctor of Diamond Harbour Medical College and Hospital recorded that there was no external injury on the womanNoting subsequent medical reports of the petitioner the bench said that it is prima facie clear that the trauma occurred on her on September 7 while she was in police custodyThe court said that the discrepancies are serious and would warrant an independent agency to conduct the investigationThe bench noted that as per the lower courts findings the petitioners were not named in the first information report FIR and that there was no direct allegation against themThe lawyer representing the women submitted that they were only present at a venue where certain offensive comments were allegedly made over which the FIR was lodgedWest Bengal has seen a spate of protests since August after the Kolkata rapemurder came to light The body of a 31year postgraduate trainee was found from the seminar room of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in the state capitalThe probe into the Kolkata rapemurder case is being conducted by the CBIWith PTI inputs