The high court on Thursday turned down a public interest litigation seeking a National Investigation Agency probe into the attack on an Enforcement Directorate team that had gone to Sandeshkhali in North 24-Parganas last Friday to raid the house of Trinamul Congress leader Shahjahan Sheikh.
“Being a high-powered agency, it is well known to the ED what should be done in such a situation. They need no help from a third party. If the ED feels it is necessary, the agency will move the court on its own,” the division bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmoy Bhattacharya said while rejecting the PIL moved by advocate Sushmita Saha Datta.
The PIL had sought an NIA investigation into the attack on the ED team allegedly by the residents of Sarberia village in Sandeshkhali when it went to raid Shahjahan’s home in connection with alleged irregularities in the public distribution system in Bengal.
The ED team was accompanied by gun-wielding paramilitary personnel when they were accosted by the villagers.
While rejecting the PIL, the bench said the court could not act on a PIL moved merely on the basis of newspaper reports.
Advocate Saha Datta, through her petition, contended that the attack, in which at least three ED officers were injured, should be considered a “heinous crime” and the probe should be handed to a central agency like the NIA.
The petitioner also demanded “exemplary punishment for those involved in the crime”.
This bench has in the past declined to admit PILs allegedly moved for “political interest” and “based on the reports published in newspapers”.
There was a spate of PILs in the run-up to the rural polls, held in July last year. “If the court hears only cases of political interest, what would be the fate of thousands of other litigations?” the Chief Justice had said then.
The ED has already moved a petition before Calcutta High Court alleging that the agency’s officers who were part of the team that raided Shahjahan’s house are now facing criminal charges levelled by the state police.