The Central Bureau of Investigation has so far received 29 complaints of sexual assault from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in connection with the post-poll violence in West Bengal. While the agency has referred two of them to the State’s Special Investigation Team (SIT), 26 complaints are under investigation by the CBI.
The Calcutta High Court had ordered the CBI on August 19, 2021 to investigate incidents involving the offences of murder, rape and attempt to rape.
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“It is clarified that the CBI had received 29 complaints of sexual assault from the NHRC, related to sexual offences, till December 22, 2021,” the agency said.
The agency has decided to hand over two of the cases to the State’s SIT on the grounds of the nature of offences, in line with mandate given in the Calcutta HC’s orders. “Further, two complaints relating to same incident of sexual assault were received by the CBI, which were amalgamated, resulting in the registration of only one regular case for investigation. The remaining cases are under progress,” the agency said.
The State police had referred 64 incidents to the CBI in accordance with the High Court’s directive. Of these, 39 cases have already been taken over by the CBI by registering cases, four references are under process, while 21 have been returned to the State police/ SIT on the grounds of nature of offence.
At the time of submitting a status report in the High Court, the agency had registered 50 cases and one preliminary enquiry into the incidents of post-poll violence. “By the time of submission of the status report, the CBI had submitted chargesheets in 10 cases, while the remaining cases are under progress,” it said.
