'Changed circumstances': CBI withdraws pleas to transfer 2021 West Bengal poll violence trials

New Delhi: The CBI on Wednesday withdrew its petitions in the Supreme Court seeking transfer of trials in cases relating to the 2021 West Bengal post-poll violence from the state, citing "changed circumstances".

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the federal agency, sought permission to withdraw the transfer petitions before a bench headed by CJI Surya Kant.

The petitions, including CBI vs Debasis Ghosh and Others, had sought the transfer of criminal proceedings arising from violence that followed the Bengal elections in 2021 to courts outside the state. CBI had cited apprehensions of witness intimidation and concerns over the fairness of trials in West Bengal. The agency had also relied on a report of the National Human Rights Commission, which recommended that cases investigated by CBI in connection with the violence be tried outside the state.


The withdrawal marks a new development in the agency's long-running effort to have the proceedings shifted outside Bengal. The transfer petitions had previously come under sharp scrutiny from the SC in September 2024, when a bench of Justices (retd) Abhay S Oka and Pankaj Mithal objected to the allegations made against the state's judiciary in the CBI's pleadings. The bench had taken exception to CBI's assertions that a hostile environment prevailed in courts across Bengal and that witnesses and other participants faced intimidation. It questioned the sweeping nature of the allegations, observing that the pleadings appeared to cast aspersions on the entire state judiciary.

The agency's latest decision comes after a change in the state's political dispensation following the 2026 elections, with the BJP forming the government under Suvendu Adhikari, ending the Trinamool Congress's 15-year rule under Mamata Banerjee. The 2021 post-poll violence cases arose from allegations of attacks, intimidation and other offences following the assembly election results in West Bengal.

The CBI had investigated several cases pursuant to judicial directions, while the proposed transfer of trials remained a separate issue before the Supreme Court.