Calcutta High Court on Friday cancelled the bail granted by the Alipore court to a man accused of raping the wife of a bureaucrat at gunpoint in July.

Criticising Kolkata Police for failing to take proper action on the FIR lodged by the woman with Lake police station, Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj directed the deputy commissioner, women’s cell, at Lalbazar to reinvestigate the case and instructed the investigating officer to hand over relevant documents to the deputy commissioner.

Justice Bharadwaj also ordered that a department inquiry be initiated against three women police officers — Sujata Burman of Lake police station, Kalpana Roy of Tiljala police station and Archana Bhattacharya of Karaya police station — for dereliction of duty.

Sources at Lake police station said the woman filed a complaint in July alleging that the accused had outraged her modesty at her home.

As there was no woman police officer of the rank of sub-inspector when the woman turned up at Lake police station to lodge her complaint, a woman officer was called in from Tiljala police station to record her statement, sources said. Subsequently, a woman officer from Karaya police station helped the Tiljala officer record the complaint and follow it up, they added.

“Based on the woman’s complaint, an FIR was drawn up against the accused with charges of attempted molestation. The man was later arrested,” a senior police officer said.

“While her statement was being recorded before the magistrate, the woman said she was raped at gunpoint; and IPC Section 376 was added to the case.”

Sources in the police said that when the accused was produced before the Alipore court, the judge granted him bail on the ground that the investigating officer had not completed the formalities of arrest properly.

The court said that some of the points on the checklist under Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), including the reason why the arrest was mandatory, had not been ticked, court sources said.

“Based on the (high) court’s observations, department proceedings have been initiated against the officers concerned and the case has been transferred to another investigating officer,” the officer said.

After the accused was granted bail, the woman approached the high court alleging her complaint had not been investigated properly. Following her petition, Justice Bharadwaj issued the order on Friday.

Sources said the state government had decided to appeal against Justice Bharadwaj’s order.