The CBI has sought details of all cases of post-election result violence which were registered with different police stations in Bengal and the steps that the state government initiated based on those complaints.
In a mail to the home department on Friday, a copy of which was sent to director general of state police Virendra, the CBI asked fore a list of cases of murder, alleged rape, violence and intimidation that were recorded in the aftermath of the Assembly polls results.
Senior CBI officers said a separate case would be drawn up after the agency received the list of the complaints recorded so far. This would be the first step of starting a probe in accordance with the directive of Calcutta High Court.
The high court had on Thursday directed the state government to hand over to the CBI investigations into cases of alleged murder, rape and unnatural deaths that had taken place across the state after Assembly results were declared on May 2.
“In case of some of these complaints, the state police have even initiated probes and taken necessary action. We want all those details before drawing up a specific case for our investigation to begin,” said a senior officer of the CBI.
Ahead of taking up the probe, senior CBI officers held several rounds of meetings at the headquarters in Delhi to finalise composition of the team after pouring over the report drawn up by the National Human Right Commission (NHRC) on the violence.
Sources said the CBI was planning to set up four teams for Bengal, each headed by a senior officer of the rank of joint director and comprising eight members each. Officers from CBI’s different units in Dehradun, Patna, New Delhi and Lucknow have been asked to report as a part of the team building process.
Each team will have a woman officer of the rank of superintendent of police and senior officers of the rank of deputy inspector general of police.
The teams are scheduled to reach Bengal by next week. Senior officers will meet their counterparts in the state police to collect information and case details and subsequently, the CBI will draw up a “regular case” and begin its probe.