The court has the authority to issue specific directions to ensure a thorough and fair investigation, considering the impact on society and doubts about the fairness of the investigation.

ORDER :

1. We have registered this suo motu petition on the basis of media reports about the unfortunate incident which has taken place at late night on 21.03.2022 at Bogtui village in Rampurhat (Birbhum) in the State of West Bengal.

2. As per newspaper reports, some miscreants had set 10 houses in Bogtui village on fire resulting in death of at least 8 persons including a child, 6 women aged between 7 to 52 years and a newly married couple.

3. The suo motu petition has been registered to ensure that the fair investigation takes place and those who are responsible for the incident are traced out and adequately punished.

4. In this suo motu petition one Mr. Sabyasachi Chatterjee, a practicing advocate of this Court has filed the supplementary affidavit pointing out following deficiencies in the investigation:

"(a) no forensic sample has been collected (b) Local villagers are terrorised (c) no measures has been taken by the police administration to restore the normalcy in the said area (d) the villagers are being terrorised by the goons of All India Trinamool Congress so that they cannot even go the Police Station to lodge the complaint (e) the victims who have suffered bodily injury and presently hospitalized are required to be protected and their statements are required to be collected by the police for the purpose of the investigation (f) the evidence are required to be preserved but it appears that by not taking any appropriate measures to preserve those evidences the police authority is trying to tamper the evidence of the incident (g) the villagers particularly the male members of the village Bagdui, Rampurhat have been forced to leave the village due to fear and they are still leaving the village so that peace must be restored immediately in order to build up the confidence of people".

5. In WPA (P) 124 of 2022 supplementary affidavit has been filed seeking permission to strike out the pleadings contained in paragraph 2 of the petition.

6. The prayer is allowed and necessary correction be made.

7. Certain PILs have also been filed raising the grievance relating to this incidents, which are now tagged with the suo motu petition.

8. Learned counsel for the parties in those petitions have been heard.

9. Learned counsel appearing for the petitioner in connected WPA (P) 124 of 2022 has submitted that there are two witnesses of the incident and one of them has died and the other witness is a minor who is required to be protected.

10. He has further submitted that the forensic team from C.F.S.L., Delhi should be called to collect the evidence for the purpose of forensic examination as there is serious doubt about fairness of the investigation by the SIT.

11. He has also submitted that one Mr. Gyanbant Singh is one of the member of the SIT, against whom there was a allegation of murder of one Rizwanur Rahaman in the year 2007, therefore he was kept out of work till 2014 and the other member of SIT is one Mr. Sanjay Singh, ADG, Western Zone, who was removed by the Election Commission of India in the year 2021 for interfering in the election process.

12. It has also been submitted that Mr. Gyanbant Singh is invariably included in the SIT and earlier also he was a member of the SIT in the murder case of Anish Khan and his inclusion is for some purpose.

13. Submission has been made to issue direction to preserve the evidence as also quarden off the places of occurrence so that evidence is not destroyed till CBI or any independent investigating agency is appointed.

14. In WPA (P) 125 of 2022 the argument has been advanced that the eyewitnesses are being threatened and all the residents of the village especially the male persons have been forced to leave the village and therefore, there is a need to provide security to the villagers.

15. In WPA (P) 126 of 2022 the argument of learned counsel for the petitioner is that now no one left in the village, therefore, confidence building steps must be taken and that the high officials such as DG of police, w