Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday refused to take a decision on the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) plea to dismantle the agency’s special investigation team (SIT) formed to prove the multi-crore cash-for-school job case in West Bengal during the previous Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress regime.
A single-judge bench of Justice Amrita Sinha advised the central agency to approach the Supreme Court in the matter, noting that since a stay had been imposed by the Supreme Court on hearings in such matters, the Calcutta High Court could not take any decision.
The CBI started an investigation in the West Bengal school job cases by forming a SIT following an order in 2022 by the Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who is currently the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha member from Tamluk Constituency in East Midnapore district.
Last month, the CBI, in an application filed in the Calcutta High Court, said that the investigation of most of the cases in the hands of the SIT has already been completed.
In that application, the CBI maintained that SIT was no longer needed for the investigation and the remaining investigation could be carried forward by the agency’s anti-corruption branch.
Additional Solicitor General Dhiraj Trivedi, who appeared on behalf of the CBI on Tuesday, said that this SIT had been functioning for the last five years. “Many officers who were part of the SIT have retired, while some have been promoted again. So, it was necessary to dismantle the SIT formed for a specific investigation,” he told the court.
Justice Sinha questioned the progress of the investigation by the SIT and also enquired about the future of the investigation before advising the CBI to approach the Supreme Court in the matter.
(IANS)
