HC no to CBI probe, orders fresh autopsy

Kolkata: Calcutta High Court on Monday turned down a petition for a CBI investigation into the unnatural death of BJP’s Hemtabad MLA Debendra Nath Roy, whose body was found hanging from a bamboo frame in front of a closed cellphone shop, 1.5km from his residence. Petitioner Chandrima Roy, the MLA’s widow, is now set to move a division bench against the order.
Justice Shivakant Prasad didn’t find merit in the CBI plea as the CID, probing the case, has already arrested one person who is named in Chan-drima’s complaint filed with Uttar Dinajpur police.
The court, however, has ordered a fresh post-mortem by a medical board, duly constituted under the head of the forensic department of medical college and hospital, Kolkata. It has also directed a second opinion on the autopsy report, which indicated that the injuries were “ante-mortem” and described the case as “death due to hanging”. The court has directed the ADG (CID) to monitor the investigation.
Advocate-general Kishore Dutta opposed the widow’s prayer for a CBI inquiry with the argument that the state had already launched a CID probe and that police had arrested a person whose name was mentioned in the note recovered from the MLA’s shirt pocket.
Some names and cellphone numbers were mentioned in the said note. Petitioner Chandrima too named two of them in her police complaint, saying her husband was receiving “threats” from these people for quite sometime.