Tapas Burman and Rajesh Sarkar, students at Darivit High School, in Raiganj in North Dinajpur district were killed in an alleged case of police firing in September 2018.

State chief secretary BP Gopalika, along with state home secretary Nandini Chakraborty and additional director general of CID, Dr R Rajasekaran, virtually appeared in front of the single-judge bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha to inform the HC about the handover of the probe-related documents to the NIA.

Justice Mantha, expressing his dismay, said that despite being the top administrative officials of the state, it is their duty to honour a court order asking them to physically appear before the court.

On April 12, Justice Mantha first directed the chief secretary, home secretary and the ADG (CID) to be physically present in front of his bench and had warned of issuing arrest warrants against them, if they failed to appear. However, following the plea from state Advocate General Kishore Datta, Justice Mantha partially amended his order and allowed the two bureaucrats and the police officer to be present virtually.

Earlier this month, the division bench of Calcutta HC Chief Justice, TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya had upheld an earlier order by Justice Mantha for an NIA probe in the case.