Supreme Court sets aside order transferring Nisith Pramanik convoy attack probe to CBI; remands case to Calcutta High Court

The Supreme Court on Thursday set aside an order of the Calcutta High Court which transferred the probe into the attack on the convoy of Union Minister of State Nisith Pramanik to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) [State of West Bengal v. Suvendu Adhikari]..A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chadrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala asked the Calcutta High Court to take a fresh look at the case. "High Court would take a fresh view if West BengalPpolice has probed the incident or is it fit for transfer to CBI. We allow the appeal and set aside the March 28 order of Calcutta High Court and restore the matter back at the High Court," the order stated..The Court opined that the High Court did not apply its mind to the entirety of the record placed by the State, particularly an additional affidavit which set out steps taken by the police authorities. "The affidavit shows that based on CIST complaint another case was registered against 30 people. The steps which were taken in pursuance of the FIR was taken in following terms. The above material was before the High Court and High Court was apprised of 21 arrests. The High Court has not noticed any of the above passages in course of its judgment.".The High Court had transferred the investigation while noting that since allegations had been made against the State's ruling party, there was a possibility of the State Police not carrying out a fair investigation."The allegations are against the workers of the ruling party in the State, therefore, the possibility that State Police may not fairly carry out the investigation cannot be denied, especially when the other side are the workers of principal political opposition party in the State," the Division Bench recorded..The High Court placed significant reliance on the fact that despite the incident taking place on February 25, cases were registered on February 26 and 27. Further, as per a report of the police from March 3, the investigation was still at a preliminary stage."Thus, the report itself supports the petitioner’s plea that the State police authorities are not likely to conduct the fair investigation in the matter.".The petition before the High Court was filed by Member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly and State opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari.He alleged that the police personnel present at the site of the incident took no step to stop the perpetrators and, thereafter, supporters of the State's ruling Trinamool Congress party had attacked the opposition BJP's party office..[Read our live-coverage of the hearing below]