The West Bengal government on Monday told the Supreme Court that cases related to post-poll violence in the state were transferred “en masse” to the Central Bureau of Investigation by the Calcutta High Court without looking into facts related to them, Live Law reported.

On August 19, the Calcutta High Court had ordered a CBI inquiry into cases involving allegations of murder, rape and crimes against women in the violence that took place in West Bengal after Assembly election results were announced on May 2.

On Monday, a Supreme Court bench of Justices Vineet Saran and Aniruddha Bose was hearing a petition filed by the West Bengal government challenging the High Court’s decision. In its plea, the Mamata Banerjee-led government had submitted that it did not expect the CBI to conduct a fair investigation.

Appearing for the state government, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal began his submissions saying that in one of the murder cases that the CBI is investigating, the said victim was still alive.

“Shocking things are happening...” Sibal told the court.

He also contended that the CBI inquiry was ordered without looking into each of the cases individually. He said that the CBI was also investigating dacoity cases even after it was asked to probe only cases related to rape, murder and crimes against women, PTI reported.

“In normal circumstances, whenever there is an allegation that an investigation is not being carried independently, the court takes the facts into consideration and then transfers the case to CBI after a prima facie conclusion,” Sibal told the court. “In this case, the cases were en masse transferred to CBI.”

However, the matter was adjourned till September 28 after Sibal said that he would need two to three hours to complete his submissions. The court said that there was paucity of time and adjourned the hearing.

Post-poll violence and CBI investigation

West Bengal had witnessed several incidents of violence following the Assembly election results on May 2.

The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Trinamool Congress blamed each other for the deaths of multiple party workers. Various news reports put the toll between 11 and 14, but the police did not confirm the numbers.

On June 18, the Calcutta High Court had directed the National Human Rights Commission of India to set up a seven-member committee to investigate the matter. The rights panel submitted its report on July 13, recommending that cases of “heinous crimes” should be transferred to the CBI.

The committee had alleged that the state police were “grossly derelict, if not complicit” in the violence. However, the state government claimed that the committee was formed to “spearhead a witch hunt” against it.

In its August 19 judgement, the High Court said that cases other than the ones being investigated by the CBI, will be probed by a special investigation team. The court said that it will monitor investigations of both the CBI and the SIT.

However, the West Bengal government has accused the CBI of working at the Centre’s behest to file cases against members of the ruling Trinamool Congress.