Calcutta High Court expunges aspersions by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay against State CID; says judge may have been swayed by emotion

The Calcutta High Court recently set aside a ₹5 lakh imposed upon the State Crime Investigation Department (CID) and expunged 'aspersions' cast against the State agency by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay in an order concerning a ₹50 crore money laundering case [State of West Bengal vs Kalpana Das Sarkar]..The money laundering case related to the alleged failure of a cooperative society, the Alipurduar Mahila Rindan Samabay Samity, to return money to several depositors, allegedly to the tune of ₹50 crores..On August 24, Justice Gangopadhyay transferred the probe into this case from the CID to central agencies, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).On September 15, Justice Gangopadhyay rejected a plea by the CID to recall the August 24 direction. Further, in this order, Justice Gangopadhyay observed that the CID was "playing with the court" and that the plea to recall the August 24 order was "absolutely frivolous.".This September 15 order was challenged by the CID before a division bench of Justices Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya and Uday Kumar.Last Thursday, the division bench upheld the transfer order by Justice Gangopadhyay but quashed all his observations against the CID, opining that the single judge 'might have been swayed away with emotions.' ."It is evident that the learned Single Judge was somewhat swayed by emotion in making the said observations, which might have coloured the order dated September 15, 2023 ... in the circumstances as indicated, the cost of ₹ 5 lakh imposed on the CID ought not to have been imposed and is required to be set aside. The aspersions cast against the CID in the form of questions raised in the order dated September 15, 2023, being without any apparent basis, are also expunged from the order," the division bench said. .In the earlier September 15 order, certain questions were raised by the single judge such as why the CID is so interested in not handing over the investigation to the CBI and ED.The apparent premise for rejecting the recall plea was the single judge's opinion that the CID had no business in filing such an application, the division bench noted..The judges also noted that there were reasonable grounds to believe the CID's submission before the single judge that it did not have the original records in the case to hand them over to the CBI."Such considerations are not reflected in the order of the Single Judge," the bench observed..All the same, the division bench found that, on merits, no fault could be found with the single judge's decision to reject the CID's plea for a recall of the transfer order.."Hence, although the reasoning of the order dated September 15, 2023 could be mellowed down, the conclusion reached by the learned Single Judge in the said order was perfectly justified," the division bench held..Notably, the judges also declined to interfere with the August 24 order to transfer the case to the CBI, opining that there was sufficient reason to apprehend that the investigation undertaken by the CID did not inspire public confidence."The allegation in the writ petition revolves around common people being swindled mercilessly by certain thoroughly unscrupulous people. The amount of money involved runs into crores, being not less than Rs. 50 crore. If the said factual scenario does not lend sufficient magnitude to the offences for handing over the enquiry to a Central Agency, it is doubtful as to what else would," the Court added..Calcutta High Court slaps ₹5 lakh costs on State CID for not handing over case to CBI, ED despite court order.Advocates Joyjit Choudhury, Subir Kumar Saha and Bedashruti Bose appeared for the State CID. Advocates Bikramaditya Ghosh, Supriya Singh and Deborshi Dhar represented the original petitioners (depositors). Advocates Sudipto Kumar Mazumdar and Ajoy Kumar Singhania represented the CBI..[Read Judgment]