Anis Khan death: Calcutta High Court rejects plea for CBI probe

It also ordered that copies of the autopsy report be handed over to both the SIT and the family members of the alumnus of Aliah University

Calcutta High Court.: File photo

Tapas Ghosh   |   TT  |  Calcutta   |   24.02.22  :  Calcutta High Court on Thursday turned down a prayer for a CBI probe into the death student leader Anis Khan under mysterious circumstances at Amta in Howrah district last week.

While turning down the plea of family members of Anis for the CBI probe, Justice Rajasekhar Mantha allowed the state government-appointed Special Investigation Team to continue with its probe but under the supervision of Howrah district judge.

Moving the petition on behalf of Anis’s father, senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya argued that it was clear that police had been involved in the crime and the family members of the victim did not have faith in the SIT and hence, the CBI should be asked to conduct the probe.

Advocate general S.N. Mukherjee admitted that Anis’s death was very tragic and the state government wanted to find out the people involved in the crime.

“The success rate of the CBI is practically nil,” the AG said.

After hearing both the sides, the court ordered that a fresh post-mortem on the body of Anis be conducted by the SIT under the supervision of the Howrah district judge. The court also ordered that copies of the autopsy report be handed over to both the SIT and the family members of the alumnus of Aliah University.

The bench also directed the holding of test identification (TI) parade as desired by Anis’s family and asked the district judge to select persons from among the victim’s relatives to take part in the process. The parade is required to identify whether two police personnel arrested in the case were actually present at the residence of Anis on the night of the incident.

Lawyers representing the SIT told the court that they wanted to examine Anis’s mobile phone, but his family members had refused to hand over the same.

Justice Mantha held that Anis’s family would hand over the cellphone to the Howrah district judge, who would send the same to Hyderabad Forensic Lab for test. The order said the mobile phone would be sealed in the presence of Anis’s relatives before it was handed over to the district judge. 

The court also said the district judge would hand over copies of the forensic report both to the deceased youth’s family and the SIT.

The court adjourned the case for two weeks and asked the SIT to file its progress report on the next day of hearing.

However, a senior lawyer representing Anis family said they would move the high court’s division bench against Thursday’s order.

“We need to go through the verdict but will reiterate our lack of faith in the SIT. If required, we will later move the Supreme Court to fulfil our demand for a CBI probe,” Anis’s elder brother Sabir Khan said.

Anis’ father Salem Khan echoed Sabir and wanted nothing less than a CBI probe into the “murder” of his son.

CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty said: “The order to carry out the post-mortem under the watch of a district judge vindicated our stand and showed the lack of confidence of the court in the SIT.”