Coal-Cattle Scam: Calcutta High Court Directs Single Judge To Decide Afresh Plea For CBI Probe Into Murder Of Trader Raju Jha

In a case concerning a murder investigation linked with the infamous coal and cattle scams in West Bengal, the Calcutta High Court today said that the powers of a Court to transfer an investigation from one investigative agency to another, particularly a central investigative agency, must be exercised “sparingly” and only along parameters as laid down in multiple decisions of the Supreme Court.

A division bench of Chief Justice Sivagnaman and Justice Ajay Kumar Gupta set aside the order for transfer of investigation and held that there must be a “proven live link” between the investigation sought to be transferred and related investigations being carried out by the Central Bureau of Investigation (“CBI”). It held:

“First, [we] need to point out directions issued by Supreme Court in several judgements as to when and under what circumstances a case can be transferred from one investigative agency to another, particularly a central agency…[such an] extraordinary power [of transfer] must be exercised sparingly, cautiously and in exceptional situations where it becomes necessary to provide credibility and instil confidence in investigation or where investigation may have national or international ramification or when such an order becomes necessary for doing complete justice and enforcing Fundamental Rights of any person. Although the Supreme Court has said that no inflexible guileless can be laid down for this power of transfer...it is reiterated that such an order of investigation is not passed as a matter of routine or merely because there are allegations against local police.”

The appeal arose from an order of a single-judge which transferred the investigation into murder of alleged coal mafia Raju Jha to the CBI.

It was submitted by the Senior Counsel appearing for the CBI that the victim was himself one of the accused in the coal/cattle scam case, which was already being investigated by the CBI, and that his murder took place only a couple of days before he was due to appear before the Enforcement Directorate to answer the allegations against him.

It was also submitted that one of the people in the car with the victim, during the murder, was an absconding accused in the coal/cattle scam case himself. The CBI argued that due to the reasons of certain high-ranking officials themselves being under investigation in the coal/cattle scam, the investigation was transferred to it since the murder was allegedly related to the investigations into the coal/cattle scam case already being carried out by the Agency.

Kharka had claimed Jha was not an accused in the scam.

It was the argument of the State, through Senior Standing Counsel Amitesh Banerjee, that in the present facts and circumstances, the Court erred in transferring the case to the CBI, and that the order for transfer was only given when the State police had completed a substantial part of the investigation themselves.

Upon hearing counsels for both sides, the Court held that while it would be within the powers of the single-judge to transfer a case for investigation to the CBI, such power must be exercised along the lines of the settled points of law on the issue, and the order to that effect must be well reasoned. The impugned order in this case, the CJ said,

“...is only a one and half page order…order should speak for itself…if we pass an order without reasons, you will say order is devoid of reasons…this is a case of murder…was this murder done to prevent him from appearing to a ED summons…these facts need to be established.”

With these observations, the Court set aside the order for transfer of investigation to CBI and remanded the case back to the single-judge, observing that all parties should file their affidavits for a more detailed hearing and that the CBI should be able to establish a “live link or nexus” between the investigation sought to be transferred and the ongoing investigation of the CBI into the coal and cattle scams in West Bengal.

Coram: Chief Justice Sivagnaman and Justice Ajay Kumar Gupta

Case: RANJU JHA VS NARENDRA KHARKA AND ORS

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Cal) 170