Top court hands over probe into Malda incident to NIA

The Supreme Court on Monday directed the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to probe into the incident of mob violence in West Bengal’s Malda district, where seven judicial officers were held hostage for eight hours, during a protest against the removal of names in the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

- Abraham Thomas

The court further took a dig at the state chief secretary for being “obstinate” in not being accessible to the high court chief justice on the day of the incident, that also involved threat and assault against the officers.

Days after the top court took suo motu cognisance of the April 1 violence, the NIA informed a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant that based on the preliminary enquiry (PE) filed in the case, the agency has identified 12 instances in all where judicial officers faced coercion or roadblock in performing the SIR duties entrusted to them by the top court.

However, as these cases are under probe by the state police and do not come under the scheduled offences under the NIA Act, it would require a court order to take the investigation to its logical conclusion, it said in a sealed cover report submitted to the court.