Bowing to intense public pressure, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya on Wednesday transferred five police officers, including the Kolkata police commissioner, a day after the Calcutta high court ordered a CBI investigation into the mysterious death of Rizwanur Rehman.
The officers transferred were Police Chief Prasun Mukherjee, two Deputy Commissioners Gyanwant Singh and Ajay Kumar, Assistant Commissioner of the Anti-Rowdy section Sukanti Chakraborty and Sub-Inspector Krishnendu Ghosh.
They were allegedly involved in the death of the computer graphics teacher Rehman who was pressurised to part with his Hindu wife Priyanka, the daughter of industrialist Ashok Todi.
"All the officers will be transferred with immediate effect and the order will be implemented as early as possible," Bhattacharya, who also holds the Home (Police) portfolio, told reporters at the state secretariat.
"We have already taken a political decision to remove them though it took some time due to legalities," the chief minister said.
He said that the state government had accepted the CBI investigation, but the judicial inquiry would continue concurrently.
Rizwanur married Priyanka on August 18 and his body was found on railway tracks near Dum Dum far from his home in Park Circus on Septemeber 21.
After their marriage, the two DCs, the AC and the SI had summoned the couple to the police headquarters thrice and allegedly threatned Rizwanur to part with Priyanka.
The chief minister said that the police officers were being transferred since questions were raised from different sections and the media.
He, however, refused to take any question on who would succeed Prasun Mukherjee as the police commissioner and where they would be transferred.
He said now that they were transferred, the next course of action would depend on the judicial inquiry and the court order.
To a question if he had referred industrialist Ashok Todi to the police commissioner, the chief minister retorted, "I don't know Ashok Todi. I never saw him and I will never see him."
Asked why the state government had not appealed against Tuesday's high court order, he said, "It was due to political reasons.
We contested the case on the question of its legality on whether the high court can order a CBI investigation bypassing the state government," Bhattacharya said.
The state government has decided to accept the CBI investigation considering 'all opinions'.
"To me, a CID and CBI investigation make no difference," he said.
Bhattacharya pointed out that it was the state government which had on its own opted for a CBI probe into the Purulia arms drop case, the theft of Tagore's Nobel medallion and the Tapasi Malik murder case.
"The question remains if the high court can order a CBI inquiry bypassing the state government," he said.
Bhattacharya said that the issue whether a high court could order a CBI probe was being looked into by a six member constitution bench of the Supreme Court.
"We are waiting for its ruling and everybody will accept its verdict," he said.
