Swapan Banerjee, an advocate with the Calcutta High Court, had recently filed a petition alleging that postmortem reports in unnatural death cases were not available in due time. As a result, investigation in such cases was being delayed. He had also stated that there had been cases where though postmortems were conducted within one or two days of the deaths, the reports were not handed over to the investigating officer even after a year.

On Friday, he pleaded before a Division Bench of Chief Justice S S Nijjar and Justice Dipankar Dutta that the families of accident victims were the worst sufferers, as they could not claim compensation without postmortem reports. The police also took years and years to complete investigation leading to a denial of justice, Banerjee added. In North 24 Parganas, postmortem reports in 1,275 unnatural death cases were not available in due time. The situation in other districts was also similar, he alleged. Advocate General Bolai Roy assured the court that the state will monitor the situation and do the needful. The case will come up for hearing after a month.

Court directs police to bust fake ration card racket
The Calcutta High Court on Friday directed the North 24 Parganas police to make efforts to bust fake ration card and birth certificate racket active in the district. While hearing the case of illegal Bangladeshi immigrant’s arrest from Bongaon on April 13, the High Court asked the district police to enhance surveillance.

The court also directed the block medical officers of health in the district to upgrade their system of maintaining the records of birth certificates. Bangladeshi citizen Kubad Mondol (42), who was arrested for violating the provisions of Foreigners Act, had submitted a ration card and a birth certificate at the sub-divisional court to prove that he was an Indian citizen.

Investigation, however, revealed that he resided at Jessore in Bangaladesh and had entered Indian territory after crossing the border. He had procured the fake ration card and the birth certificate from one such member of the racket. The police are yet to bust the racket.

Garia club to be demolished
The Calcutta High Court directed the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) on Friday to demolish the building of Sabujdal club at Garia on grounds of illegal construction.

Delivering the order Justice Jayanta Biswas directed the police to provide security to the corporation during the demolition work.