If the CBI created four zones to investigate post-poll violence which are grave in nature, the West Bengal government has created five zones to probe minor incidents of violence that took place after the election results were out on May 2. The government has deployed 10 IPS officers—mostly in the ADG, IG and DIG-rank—across the state for the same. These include high-profile officers, including S. N. Gupta, ADG South Bengal; Sanjay Singh, ADG western range; and Tanmoy Roychowdhury, additional commissioner of Kolkata police.
One zone each has been created for Kolkata, South 24 and North 24 Parganas. The other two are each for the western belt and the northern belt.
The team would be evaluated by a three-member team headed by Suman Bala Sahoo, DG (communications). The other two members in the team would be Kolkata police commissioner, Soumen Mitra and IG-rank officer Ranvir Kumar. The work of the SIT team will be further monitored by a Supreme Court retired justice whose name is yet to be mentioned by the court.
There was a delay of almost a fortnight to create the SIT team, despite Sahoo writing to the government about the Calcutta High Court order. The state government has set up the team just before it has decided to move the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
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The CBI, which is supposed to file a status report on post-poll violence investigation of grave nature in six weeks, has registered 38 cases so far. The four joint directors of the CBI have visited Nandigram, Cooch Behar, Nadia, and parts of North 24 Parganas.
The Kolkata team is also investigating the gruesome killing of BJYM Kolkata district committee member Abhijit Sarkar. Shortly before his murder on the intervening night of May 2 and May 3, Abhijit made a social media live seeking help. His brother has been interrogated by the CBI, and Abhijit's computer and mobile phones have been seized. The CBI has also approached the Calcutta High Court for Abhijit's autopsy report. The autopsy has been done in Command Hospital of the Indian army in Kolkata, and it was submitted to the five-member bench in a sealed cover. The CBI intends to access that.
In another incident, three TMC workers in Nadia surrendered before the district court on Wednesday to escape the CBI interrogation. They have been granted judicial custody by the district court.