HC asks CID to hand over mental asylum deaths probe to CBI

KOLKATA: Dissatisfied with the probe by the state CID in the killing of three women inmates of a home for the mentally challenged at Gurap in Hooghly district, the Calcutta High Court today directed the CBI to take over the investigation into the case.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Joymalya Bagchi directed the CID to hand over documents related to the case immediately to the central investigating agency.

The killings at the home, ' Rehabilitation Centre for Mentally Ill Persons (Women)', run by NGO Dulal Smriti Samsad, came to light following discovery of the body of a 32-year-old destitute deaf and dumb woman, Guria, who was buried after her unnatural death without informing the authorities on July one last year.

An ambulance driver of the home, Shyamal Ghosh, who was later arrested had led a CID team on July 17 last year to the bank of the Damodar river at Jamalpur near Charabagan Tulmatha village in Burdwan district where the body was dug up.

The Officer-in-Charge of Jamalpur police station Rajat Kanta Pal and ASI Biswarup Prasad Dikshit were relieved from duty and posted at the Burdwan Police Lines for dereliction of duty in the case.

The home was subsequently closed down and the inmates shifted to other homes.

The petitioner, Basabi Roychowdhury, a lawyer, had claimed that even after recovery of bodies of two more women from the bed of river Damodar, the CID had not made any progress in investigating the killings.

The court said that the question of compensation as prayed by the petitioner in the PIL, would be decided after four weeks.