HC junks plea for inquiry into Lalan's death by a sitting judge, CID to continue probe

KOLKATA: Keeping faith in the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Calcutta High Court on Wednesday set aside the plea seeking a judicial inquiry by a sitting judge into the unnatural death case of Lalan Sheikh, prime accused in the Bogtui arson case.

The Division Bench of Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj on Wednesday directed the CID to continue with the Lalan Sheikh death case probe.

Recently a lawyer, Sabyasachi Chattopadhyay, filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) demanding a judicial inquiry into the death of Lalan in the Division bench of the Chief Justice.

During the hearing of the plea on December 15, the CBI lawyer stated before the Division Bench that Lalan's death is an unfortunate incident. CID has already registered FIR against CBI officers and is probing the case. But we are not able to keep faith in a CID probe. CBI counsel also mentioned that Lalan's health check up was being done regularly and he was fit. The CBI lawyer further appealed to allow the submission of a departmental inquiry report before the court which has been started already.

After hearing from the CBI and CID, the Division Bench had directed the CBI to submit the departmental inquiry report on December 19.