Calcutta High Court directs WB police to file progress report in probe in girl's death

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court Thursday directed West Bengal police to file a progress report on its probe into the unnatural death of a minor girl at Kaliaganj in Uttar Dinajpur district, which had trigerred violent protests there earlier this week.

The court also directed the state government to hand over to the girl's father copies of the postmortem and inquest reports and FIR in the case after he petitioned for transfer of the probe into the death to CBI.

It also directed that the videography of the postmortem of the girl be properly preserved.

Justice Rajasekhar Mantha directed the state police to file the progress report on its investigation into the incident by the next date of hearing on May 2.

The petitioner's counsel Krishnendu Bhattacharya claimed that the girl was sexually assaulted and gagged to death and prayed that the investigation be transferred to the CBI as her parents have no faith in a probe by the state authorities.

The girl's family is yet to receive any document from the police, he said and prayed for a second postmortem as the body has not been cremated but buried to preserve evidence.

To this Justice Mantha held that the prayer was premature at this stage.

The court said that the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), which prayed to be supplied with copies of the inquest and postmortem reports and the FIR, may obtain from the police documents with regard to the death of the girl and the probe as per statute.

The state's lawyer submitted that the 17-year old girl was reported to have gone missing on April 20 and that her body was found near a pond a day later.

There was no sign of sexual assault on the body as per the postmortem report but there were signs of poisoning on the body, he said.

The state lawyer, however, admitted that it was a mistake to have dragged the body and told the court that four policemen were suspended for it.

Claiming that some people raised a hue and cry over the issue and took the body to a nearby market place for burning it, the state lawyer stated that the police had to take it away in order to conduct a postmortem.

Violent protests rocked Kaliaganj on April 25 over the death and agitators set fire to Kaliaganj police station.