Published on: Aug 26, 2025 06:08 pm IST
Justice Tirthankar Ghosh of the Calcutta high court ordered the CID investigation after observing during Monday’s hearing that CBI probes have become gallery shows.
Kolkata: The Calcutta high court on Tuesday directed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the West Bengal police to probe the July 12 death of two Bharatiya Janata Party workers in East Midnapore district, said lawyers who attended the hearing on a petition seeking probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
“The single bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh ordered that a CID team headed by a deputy inspector general (DIG) will probe the deaths and file a progress report before the court on September 25,” a lawyer said, requesting anonymity.
Justice Ghosh ordered the CID investigation after observing during Monday’s hearing that CBI probes have become gallery shows.
“Justice Ghosh observed on Monday that CBI probes are gallery shows and if this case was handed over to CBI it could become a gallery show,” the lawyer said.
The BJP workers, Sudhir Chandra Paik, 65, and Sujit Das, 23, died at a village dance competition organised on the occasion of Muharram in East Midnapore’s Khejuri. While the local police said after post mortem examination that the two accidentally died of electrocution, their families and the district BJP unit raised charges of communal killing.
Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly Suvendu Adhikari alleged foul play and the families moved the high court in July demanding a second post mortem examination.
Since a single bench did not accept the petition the families moved the division bench headed by Justice Debangshu Basak. The division bench ordered a second autopsy under the supervision of three senior doctors from the state-run SSKM hospital and said the report should be filed before the single bench of Justice Ghosh.
“The reports of the first and second post-mortems are not totally tallying,” Justice Ghosh observed during Monday’s hearing, adding that the discrepancies made fair judgement impossible. The court withheld its order on Monday.
