The Supreme Court on Friday acknowledged a PIL seeking a court-monitored CBI or SIT investigation into the violence in West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali village.
The PIL was mentioned for serious listing before a bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.
The CJI asked, “Have you sent an email (seeking urgent hearing)”?
“I will deal with this in the afternoon”, said CJI when PIL petitioner and lawyer Alakh Alok Srivastava answered in the affirmative.
The plea filed by Srivastava also seeks compensation for victims of the Sandeshkhali violence and action against officials of the West Bengal Police.
Srivastava, a practising Supreme Court lawyer, had filed PILs in the top court to raise socio-political issues. The plea also seeks transfer of the investigation and further trial outside West Bengal.
Apart from this, it seeks an inquiry by a three-judge committee as done in the Manipur violence case.
Sandeshkhali, a village in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, has been witnessing protests for quite some time now over allegations of sexual abuse of women by a local TMC leader.
Several women in the region have accused the local Trinamool Congress strongman Shajahan Sheikh and his supporters of land-grab and sexually assaulting them.
Shajahan has been absconding after a mob, allegedly affiliated with him, attacked Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials who had gone to search his premises in connection with a corruption case.
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