Separate PILs were filed in the Calcutta High Court on Monday seeking CBI and court-monitored probes into the alleged rape of a law student at a college in Kolkata.
The Division Bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Smita Das De allowed the filing of the three Public Interest Litigations (PILs) in connection with the June 25 rape incident, and they are likely to be heard on Thursday.
While one of the PILs sought for a High Court-monitored probe into the rape case, the remaining PILs demanded increase in security in the colleges across West Bengal and an audit of security status in the state colleges.
In his plea, advocate Souma Subhra Ray said the court-monitored investigation, preferably by the CBI, was necessary to ensure an impartial probe free from local influence or interference.
Advocate Ray, in a letter to Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam on June 27, had asked him to take suo motu cognisance of the rape incident, arguing that the state machinery “will otherwise continue its descent into callous inertia, and evidence may be destroyed, witnesses may be silenced, and justice will be permanently derailed”.
The petitioners also demanded constitution of a judicial commission, headed by a retired judge of the court, to investigate the institutional, administrative, and security failures that led to the rape incident. They also urged the court to direct the state government and the university authorities to undertake immediate audits of safety and surveillance systems across all colleges with special attention to the enforcement of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013 and UGC safety guidelines.
Later in the day, one Vijay Kumar Singhal filed a petition in the High Court seeking transfer of the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), claiming that the main accused, Manojit Mishra, has a close proximity with the ruling TMC in the state.
Mishra, 31, was a Trinamool Chhatra Parishad leader during his time as a student. The TMC, however, claimed he was no longer associated with the party.
In his plea, petitioner Singhal stated that Mishra was very influential in the conduct of the day-to-day affairs of the college, of which he is an alumnus. He also sought a direction to the state authorities to compensate the survivor and her family members.
At present, a special investigation team (SIT) of the Kolkata Police, led by an assistant commissioner rank officer, is investigating the case.
The SIT has arrested prime accused and college alumnus Manojit Mishra, along with students Promit Mukherjee (20) and Zaid Ahmed (19).
A guard of the college was also arrested on Saturday morning.