The Supreme Court directed the Calcutta High Court on Monday to complete the hearing in the Rizwanur Rehman case as early as possible. An appeal against the HC order, filed by the accused in the case, is pending before a Division Bench headed by the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court. The apex court also ordered that trial in the sessions court should not start during the pendency of the appeal.Kalyan Banerjee, counsel of the Rehman family, told The Indian Express, “The Supreme Court had earlier refused to stay the CBI probe. After Monday’s order, apart from the trial, other proceedings can take place.” Justice Dipankar Dutta had directed the CBI on August 14 to file a chargesheet against the accused policemen and members of Todi family and observed that the police officers had acted in unconstitutional and illegal manner. The order was challenged by Ashok Todi and the police officers before a Division Bench headed by Chief Justice S S Nijjar. While the Division Bench allowed the CBI on September 19 to file chargesheets against the accused, the appeal challenging the order was pending before the Bench. Then Todi moved the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the CBI probe but the petition was rejected.The Rehman family, meanwhile, filed a petition in the High Court on Monday challenging the interim bail granted to the three police officers— Ajay Kumar, Sukanti Chakraborty and Krishnendu Das. The trio had surrendered before the CBI court on September 30 and the court had remanded them in judicial custody. But the next day, the sessions court magistrate in the Bankshall court had granted them an interim bail. The Rehman family argued that the magistrate was not empowered to grant the interim bail. The police officers could have influenced the witnesses of the case. The case is likely to come up for hearing on October 16.
