Kolkata Apr 19 PTI A West Bengal government-appointed special investigation team SIT on Tuesday submitted a report to the Calcutta High Court informing it of the steps taken in its probe into the alleged murder of student leader Anis KhanAdvocate General S N Mookherjee submitted the 82-page report on the progress of the investigation to the court of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha as directed by him earlier It also appears to this court that the investigation is nearing conclusion Justice Mantha said While directing that a copy of the report be made available to senior counsel Bikash Bhattacharya who appeared for the petitioner Salem Khan the father of the deceased the court made it clear that confidentiality of the report must be maintained Khan had moved the high court seeking an order for an investigation into the death by an impartial agency that is not connected with the West Bengal police Hearing in the matter was adjourned by the court till April 25 on a prayer by BhattacharyaThe court had on March 14 said that it expects the investigation will be completed by April 18 when the matter will be heard again Justice Mantha had said that an extension of time to complete the probe will not be considered except for reasons beyond the control of the investigating agencySince Justice Mantha did not preside on Monday the SIT report was submitted on Tuesday At the beginning of the hearing on Tuesday taking note of certain disparaging remarks made by the petitioner which are doing the rounds on social media Justice Mantha expressed desire to release the matter from his court He was however persuaded by lawyers appearing for all the parties in the matter to continue hearing the case The court directed petitioner Khan to submit an apology for the remarks in an affidavit on the next date of hearingSalem Khan has alleged that his son was murdered by men wearing khaki and civic volunteer uniform on February 19 The SIT had arrested a home guard and a civic volunteer in connection with the death of Khan and they are in judicial custody now Justice Mantha taking up a petition by the deceaseds father along with a suo motu petition initiated by the court into the death had on February 24 said it is expected that no stone will be left unturned in the course of the investigation Alleging that Khan was murdered Bhattacharya had claimed before the court that he had been brutally assaulted by four persons of whom one was in police uniform and the other three in civic volunteer dress and thrown over from the third floor of his home at Amta in Howrah district on the night of February 19Khans family members have been demanding a CBI investigation into his deathClaiming that the killing of Anis Khan a social activist was a premeditated murder Bhattacharya had prayed before the court that an independent investigation be ordered into it The state government had formed the SIT headed by Additional director general CID Gyanwant Singh to hold the probe PTI AMR NN NN

Kolkata Feb 24 PTI Calcutta High Court on Thursday ordered a second post mortem of student leader Anis Khan and the submission of the progress report of the special investigation team in his death within two weeks It directed the district judge of Howrah to supervise the second post mortem of Khans body Justice Rajasekhar Mantha who had ordered that the issue of Khans death be taken up as a suo motu petition of the court also directed that the district judge will take custody of Khans mobile phone for the purpose of investigation The family members of the former Aliah university alumnus have been demanding a CBI investigation into his death and refused to hand over the phone to the SIT saying that they will give it only to the central probe agency The judge directed the SIT to submit a progress report to it by the next date of hearing which would be two weeks hence West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had on Monday ordered formation of the SIT into the death and asked it to file a report to her within 15 days Alleging that Khan was murdered senior advocate Bikash Bhattacharya had claimed before the court that he had been brutally assaulted by four persons of whom one was in police uniform and the other three in civic police dress He claimed that the student leader had been thrown out from the second floor of his home at Amta in Howrah district on the night of February 19 Bhattacharya claimed that the killing of Anis Khan a social activist was a premeditated murder and prayed to the court that an independent investigation be ordered into it The police had denied sending any team to Khans residence in Amta area and the SIT has so far arrested a civic volunteer and a homeguard in connection with the case The state government submitted that the investigation being conducted by the SIT headed by ADG CID Gyanwant Singh will hold a fair probe The high court had on Monday taken suo motu cognisance of the alleged murder of Khan The matter was mentioned by a lawyer expressing extreme urgency and prayer was made before the court for initiating a suo motu petition PTI AMR KK KK KK

Kolkata Jan 31 PTI The Calcutta High Court on Monday directed the authorities of the Alipore Zoological Garden here and the police to submit separate reports on incidents of alleged trespass at the zoo premises recently over control of its employees trade unionJustice Rajasekhar Mantha asked the director to inspect the entire zoo premises and CCTV footage of the area and submit a report on Wednesday on the encroachment as alleged by the petitioner a leader of the union of workers there The court directed the police to examine the footage of CCTV cameras between January 23 and January 28 and file a detailed report before it The police were also directed to provide to the zoo authority unedited CCTV footage the force has on the alleged incident of encroachers breaking the lock of the zoos main gate and entering the premises on January 24 when it was closed to public owing to the Covid-19 pandemic Petitioner Rakesh Singh a leader of the union at the zoo claimed that around 600 to 700 outsiders having allegiance to a rival group illegally entered the zoo premises on January 24 to forcibly take over the employees trade union Petitioners lawyer Billwadal Bhattacharya prayed for a direction for restoration of normalcy and that trespassers be evicted from the zoo premises The court directed Alipore and Watgunge police stations to ensure that there is no breach of peace and to attend to any request or complaint made in that regard PTI AMR NN NN

Kolkata Dec 22 PTI A Congress candidate who had contested the just-concluded KMC elections moved the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday seeking leave to file a petition over alleged assault on him after the conclusion of polling and grant of police protectionRabi Saha the Congress nominee from ward number 16 for the December 19 Kolkata Municipal Corporation elections claimed that supporters of the ruling Trinamool Congress roughed him up and made a video of the incident which went viral on social media Justice Rajasekhar Mantha before whom his lawyer mentioned the matter granted leave to him to file a petition in this regard Sahas lawyer said the matter following filing of the petition may be taken up for hearing by the court on Thursday His counsel claiming that the police did not take necessary action following the episode said they will seek from the court a direction to the police to take action against the perpetrators and grant protection to SahaCounting for the polls was held on Tuesday with the ruling TMC gaining control of the 144-member KMC bagging 134 seats to post a hat-trick of wins PTI AMR RBT RBT

Kolkata Dec 17 PTI The Calcutta High on Friday rejected an appeal by the BJP against a single bench order which directed that the state police - and not central forces - will provide security for the Kolkata Municipal Corporation KMC election on December 19A division bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj directed that the State Election Commission SEC with the help of the state authorities will take all possible measures to boost the confidence of votersThe bench said that area domination and route march be conducted in a planned manner and directed the state government to fully comply with its earlier order on installation of CCTV cameras in each polling boothIt observed that the SEC has assured the court of conducting free and fair polls and directed respondents to submit a report of compliance before the next date of hearingThe state unit of the BJP filed a petition before the high court on December 14 seeking deployment of central forces for Kolkata civic polls expressing apprehensions that its candidates and workers might be subjected to threats and attacksRejecting the prayer the bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha on Thursday directed that the commissioner of Kolkata Police will take care of all complaints by candidates or others during the election process The party then moved the division bench against the order of the single benchThe BJP had earlier moved the Supreme Court with the same prayer but was asked by it to approach the high court PTI dc NN NN