Kolkata: Calcutta High Court on Thursday directed the CBI to probe into the murder of TMC leader Tapan Dutta, exactly 11 years after he was lynched in May 2011 for his protest against the filling of a pond by the politicians backed by promoters at Bally in Howrah district.
The division bench chief judge, Justice Rajasekhar Mantha directed the federal agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) to probe the killing of the TMC leader and the proceeding to be heard in the CBI court.
Tapan Dutta, besides being a TMC leader, was also a crusader for the environment at Nishinda, Bally, and was murdered on May 6, 2011, for his protest against the filling of a pond in the locality.
He was hacked to death near a railway gate when he was returning home.
Since then the widow of the TMC leader, Pratima Dutta has been fighting for a CBI probe as she apprehended the involvement of some TMC leaders in the brutality.
In the murder case, as many as 13 accused have been named after the state agency CID took over the case. Later in the case, nine accused names have been deleted from the charge sheet.
In 2014 a Howrah trial court acquitted five other accused in the 2011 murder of Trinamool Congress leader Tapan Dutta, noting that the CID investigation had failed to turn up any evidence against them. The victim’s family had already moved to Calcutta High Court then.
