New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to take over the probe related to the gherao of seven judicial officers in Malda district of West Bengal. The top court observed that not only was the bureaucracy’s credibility lowered, but politics was also being West Bengal secretariat, as well as in other government offices in the state.
Lower yourself a little bit: SC to Bengal chief secretary
During the hearing, the bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, pulled up West Bengal chief secretary Dushyant Nariala, and asked him to apologise to the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice for not taking his calls on the day the incident reportedly took place.
“Lower yourself a little bit so that the Calcutta High Court chief justice can reach you. Give your apology to him.” The bench said as per PTI, “It is a sheer failure of the administration of West Bengal. What kind of credibility do the senior officers of the West Bengal bureaucracy have? It is being lowered. Politics is being brought into the state secretariat and government offices.”
Pointing out that the administration failed when judicial officers were gheraoed, the bench added, “
“The district magistrate and civil administration officials were only watching. They said what can be done, there are hundreds of women on the spot. How are hundreds of people allowed to gather at that spot? Had it not been for the efforts of the Chief Justice of India, some unfortunate incident would have taken place.”
Local police cannot be trusted: SC
Observing that the local police could not be trusted, the bench then asked them to hand over all 26 people arrested in the case to the NIA for interrogation along with the case papers, saying the local police could not be trusted in the matter. It also asked the NIA to interrogate the kingpin of the incident, expressing concern that the incident appeared to be a well-planned incident.