Sitalkuchi: HC tells CID to place probe progress report

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Friday directed the state CID to place before it a report on the progress of investigation into the firing by CISF personnel at Sitalkuchi,

resulting in the death of four persons during the fourth phase of West Bengal Assembly elections.

Hearing two PILs seeking a judicial probe into the incident, a division bench comprising Chief Justice T B N Radhakrishnan and Justice Arijit Banerjee directed the CID to place the report by May 5, when the petitions, being heard jointly, will be taken up for hearing again.

Advocate General for the state, the Additional Solicitor General appearing for the CISF and the counsel for the Election Commission of India submitted before the court that two FIRs have been lodged one at the instance of an

officer of the CISF and another at the instance of an individual in with the death of the four persons at Sitalkuchi in Cooch Behar district on April 10.

Those four, among the five killed on April 10, were migrant labourers working in Kerala. They were killed when CISF personnel opened fire in "self-defence", allegedly after coming under attack from locals who "attempted to snatch their rifles".

The court was informed that the state CID is investigating the incident, following which it was directed to submit a report on the progress of the investigation by the next date of hearing.

The petitioners have also prayed for direction for adequate monetary compensation to the kin of the four killed.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury also filed a PIL seeking CBI investigation in the

Sitalkuchi firing incident on Friday.