Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Sk. Muktar Ali vs State Of West Bengal & Ors on 6 December, 2022
Author: Rajasekhar Mantha
Bench: Rajasekhar Mantha
06.12.2022.
Court No.13
Item No.16
pk
WPA 25979 of 2022
Sk. Muktar Ali
Versus
State of West Bengal & Ors.
Mr. Atarup Banerjee,
Mr. Tapodip Gupta,
Mr. Rajdeep Pramanik
...for the petitioner.
Mr. Wasim Ahmed,
Mr. T. A. Khan
... for the State.
Mr. Soumen Kumar Dutta,
Mr. Sabyasachi Bhattacharjee
... for the respondent nos. 7 and 8.
The writ petitioner is aggrieved by alleged inaction on the part of the Mandarmoni (Coastal) Police Station in dealing with his complaint. The Mandarmoni (Coastal) Police Station has indicated to this Court that FIR No. 78 dated 28.11.2022 has been registered under Sections 120B, 419, 420, 468, 469, 471 and 472 of the IPC.
The writ petitioner has made two further submissions across the bar. It is stated that the principal accused and beneficiary of the fraud is one Suprakash Giri. Attempts have been made to shield the said person since he happens to be the son of an MLA in the State.
The said Suprakash Giri has not been named in the FIR.
2It is made absolutely clear that the Investigating Officer shall be at liberty to include any new person in the FIR, if sufficient evidence is available to that effect.
It is further submitted that mobile phone containing vital evidence in support of the petitioner's complaint is likely to be tampered with and/or destroyed. Copies of the evidence in the phone have been prepared by the petitioner and the same may be handed over to the Investigating Officer.
The mobile phone-in-question may be collected by the Investigating Officer and immediately sent for forensic examination. The data in the mobile phone shall be preserved by the forensic laboratory to ensure that the metadata digital footprint of the evidence remains available not only for further investigation but also in case of a trial.
Counsel for the private respondents/accused submits that the entire allegations against his clients are concocted and not corroborating with the records.
Investigation into the FIR shall be expedited and be completed within a period of three months from date. All necessary reports of the experts shall be collected immediately.
With the aforesaid observations, the writ petition is disposed of.
Copy of the FIR is kept with the record. There will be no order as to costs.
3All parties are directed to act on a server copy of this order duly downloaded from the official website of this Court.
(Rajasekhar Mantha, J.)