Stating that the “atmosphere” in West Bengal is “politically charged”, the SC Wednesday transferred two cases against a BJP leader to the CBI and said apprehensions expressed by the petitioner that he may not get a fair investigation at the hands of the police “may not be baseless”. BJP leader Kabir Shankar Bose had filed a petition in the SC seeking transfer of probe into two FIRs lodged by police in Serampore in December 2020 over a scuffle between the BJP leader’s security guards and ruling TMC workers. Bose, who was earlier married to TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee’s daughter, had alleged in his petition that he was being victimised at the behest of his political rivals after the couple got divorced. The Bench of Justice B V Nagarathna and Justice Pankaj Mithal said in the order that “it is undisputed that Bose and Banerjee’s daughter had a divorce and as such, there is bitter enmity between the two” leaders. “The political scenario in the State. is. opposed to the party in power at the Centre and here there is no denial to the alleged incident involving CISF officials attached to the petitioner,” the top court said. Given such a situation, it said, “the possibility that the petitioner may not get a fair investigation at the hands of the local police or that the local police may not behave cordially with him in the course of the investigation may not be baseless and cannot be brushed aside outrightly or lightly.”
