HC slams Kolkata cops' probe in Rizwanur murder

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Thursday pulled up the city police for their shoddy handling of the Rizwanur Rehman death case and directed the CBI to chargesheet all the seven accused.

Computer graphics teacher Rizwanur, who was under allegedly under pressure to get separated from his wife Priyanka, daughter of industrialist Ashok Todi, ever since their marriage, was found dead along a rail track on September 21, last year.

The incident sparked off widespread protests following which the High Court directed CBI to conduct a probe into the case.

The CBI submitted its report on February 28 to the court stating that Rizwanur had committed suicide, but recommended action against senior city police officers including the then police commissioner Prasun Mukherjee.

Justice Dipankar Datta, in a 120-page order, asked the central investigative agency to file chargesheets against the seven accused, including industrialist Pradip Todi, A Saraogi, Pappu, besides the then DCP Ajay Kumar and ACP Sukanti Chakraborty.

The judge kept its order in abeyance for three weeks to enable the accused to appeal.

The judge also slammed the CID, which initially probed the case, for conducting a preliminary inquiry without filing an FIR.

The CID, he observed, wasted precious 14 days, which was enough to provide favour to the accused and sufficient for tampering with evidence.

This was not in accordance with the law and thus the CID had acted irresponsibly which was not expected of them.

Regarding the CBI's way of initiating the inquiry into the case, the judge observed that it was absolutely legal because it had filed the FIR on the basis of certain writ petitions, affidavits and documents available.

However, the court criticised the CBI for recommending a departmental inquiry by the state government against the accused police officers.

Justice Datta stated that his observation in the case was that the local police stations in the city were for the poor and the city police headquarters at Lalbazar for the rich.

Taking a serious view of the city police, the judge observed that from August 30, 2007 to September 9, 2007, police action was unconstitutional when Rizwanur and Priyanka were seeking help.