The Bengal government on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court seeking a stay on a Calcutta High Court verdict that had asked the CBI to probe alleged murders and rapes during violence following counting of Assembly poll votes in Bengal on May 2.

The state said the high court order on August 19 had been based on a report filed by a committee appointed by the National Human Rights Commission. The government said the NHRC committee had members who were linked to the BJP. The high court had also ordered that immediate action be taken by the state to pay compensation to the victims of the violence.

The special leave petition by the Mamata Banerjee government is yet to be listed formally for a hearing by the Supreme Court.

According to the appeal, the impugned order cannot be sustained as it was contrary to several judgments by the Supreme Court in various cases earlier. Referring to the earlier verdicts of the Supreme Court, the petition said transfer of probes to the CBI could be “in rare or exceptional cases only and not merely because some unsubstantiated allegations have been levelled against the local police”.

“The impugned order (High Court) fails to explain as to how the investigations done thus far by the State police were tainted or biased or did not inspire any confidence, which are necessary prerequisite for transfer of cases to the CBI as held in the said decisions,” read the appeal.