Calcutta High Court on Thursday directed the CBI to make arrangements so that Sandeshkhali women, who had allegedly been abused sexually by the associates of former Trinamool Congress strongman Sheikh Shahjahan could lodge their complaints with the investigating agency.

The order from the division bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya followed a prayer by BJP leader and the petitioner of a public interest litigation, Priyanka Tibrewal.

Tibrewal on Thursday claimed before the bench that the alleged victims in Sandeshkhali had called her up and said they were afraid of lodging the complaints against the culprits.

"The victim women told me that the miscreants had been threatening them that they would be murdered if they lodged complaints of rape. They are so scared and could not bring rape charges against the culprits to date," Tibrewal told the court.

Appearing for the petitioner of another PIL, a counsel then told the division bench that when a similar incident had taken place in Manipur, the court had set up a three-judge committee for talking to the rape victims.

Before issuing the order, the Chief Justice said: "But we will give the responsibility to be CBI. They will do the needful. They can even send a team of their lady officers to hear the complaints of Sandeshkhali women."

The CBI has been entrusted with the responsibility of probing all sorts of alleged torture by Shahjahan and his associates in Sandeshkhali, along with the attack on a team of Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials there on January 5.

The additional solicitor general, Ashok Chakrabarty, had submitted a report on the preliminary investigation by the CBI in a sealed cover to the court. The court has yet to see the report.

The next hearing has been fixed for June 10, when the CBI will have to file another progress report.

The division bench is monitoring the investigation.