Kolkata rape-murder case: SC stays Calcutta HC order directing CBI probe into custodial torture case

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday stayed a Calcutta High Court's order directing a CBI probe into the alleged torture of a woman in police custody after her arrest over protests against the rape and murder of a doctor of R G Kar Medical College and Hospital.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan asked the West Bengal government to submit a list of seven IPS officers, including five women, who could be included in a fresh Special Investigation Team (SIT) for probing the custodial torture case.

The order was passed on an appeal filed by the West Bengal government which had stated the high court had erroneously passed the order directing a CBI probe and the state police was capable of the investigation.

On November 6, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court upheld an order of a single judge directing a CBI investigation into the allegations levelled by the woman.

The division bench had said that the order of the single bench for conducting an independent investigation cannot be faulted and does not call for any interference.

Dismissing the appeal made by the West Bengal government, the high court had directed the CBI to comply with the order of the single bench.

Two petitioners, both women, had moved the single bench alleging physical torture in police custody. The court had noted 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 them.

The single bench had on October 8 directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct a thorough investigation into the allegation of physical torture in police custody of one of them.

Hearing an appeal by the state government challenging the single bench order, the division bench had 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 interference.

"The 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 had said.

Rama Das 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, the court noted.

The division bench noted that while the report of the medical officer of Diamond Harbour sub-correctional 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 her.

Noting 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 custody.

The court said that the discrepancies are serious and would warrant an independent agency to conduct the investigation.

The bench noted that as per the lower court's findings, the petitioners were not named in the FIR and that there was no direct allegation against them.

Their lawyer submitted that they were only present at a venue where certain offensive comments were allegedly made, over which the FIR was lodged.