TMC leader’s son accused in gangrape and death of minor: Calcutta High Court transfers investigation to CBI

The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday transferred the investigation into the gangrape and death of a minor girl aged about 14 years belonging to the Scheduled Caste to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) [Shaista Afreen and Others v State of West Bengal]..A Bench of Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj took note of the fact that the accused in the case was one Brijgopal Goalain, who was stated to be the son of an influential political leader of the Trinamool Congress Party (TMC) and a member of Gazna Gram Panchayat.“We cannot lose sight of the fact that the accused is the son of a powerful leader of the ruling party and that there is material available in the case diary indicating that the family members of the victim have been threatened.”.The Bench found that the investigation suffered from serious lapses on several important aspects. The fact that there was no medico-legal case report, post-mortem report or death certificate created suspicion that there was an attempt to suppress the entire incident..It was alleged that on April 4, the victim was invited to Goalain’s birthday party where she was gangraped by him and 4-5 other friends. She was sent back to her home at around 8PM sick, unable to stand up, bleeding from her private parts and smelling of alcohol. Soon after her mother returned from the local doctor, the daughter was found dead on the bed..The petitioners alleged that the family was prevented from taking the victim to a private or government hospital, and resultantly, the girl died on account of excessive bleeding from her private parts.It was also their submission that the family was threatened and the police refused to register a report on the next day. Only after the intervention of a local NGO was a First Information Report (FIR) registered by the police after five days.It was the petitioner’s concern that the investigation was not being conducted adequately since the father of the accused is a TMC leader. They stated that even the highest executive of the State was calling it an incident resulting from a love affair. Therefore, people did not have faith in the State’s police machinery to carry out a fair investigation..The State submitted a case diary to the Court and stated that the police authorities were properly investigating the matter. The Court was informed that an arrest was made and statements of the concerned people under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) had been recorded..The Court relied on its decision in the case of The Court on its own Motion In re: The Brutal Incident of Bogtui Village, Rampurhat, Birbhum wherein it considered the circumstances and scope of handing over the investigation to an independent agency like the CBI.It was noted that to have a fair investigation in the matter and to instil confidence in the family members of the victim, the residents of the locality and the State, the probe must be carried out by the CBI instead of the local police.The CBI was directed to furnish a report describing the progress of investigation by May 2. The authorities were also asked to extend full protection to the family members of the victim and the witnesses..Advocates Sabyasachi Chatterjee, Sayan Banerjee and Debolina Sarkar appeared for the intervenors.Advocates Susmita Saha Dutta, Sanjeeb Seni, Phiroze Edulji, Rajdeep Biswas, D Dandapath, AK Upadhyay, Biswapriya Samanta, Debapriya Samanta, Avijit Ray, Indratanu Das Mahapatra, Mansa Ram Mondal, Sourav Mallick and Avipra Sarka appeared for the petitioners.The State and Union of India were represented by Advocate General SN Mookherjee, Advocates Samrat Sen, Tapas Mukherjee and Srijita Ray, and Additional Solicitor General Dhiraj Trivedi and Advocate Aganabha Raha.Advocate Samrat Goswami appeared for the CBI..[Read Order]