Justice Arunabha Basu said Jayanta Mukherjee, a former DSP at Kharagpur, could not be prosecuted without the state government’s sanction as he had acted in his official capacity.

The CBI had filed charge-sheet against Mukherjee for allegedly killing Soumendu Mondal in the police custody on July 8, 2004. The trial in the murder case has been started in the sessions court at Midnapore.

Mondal was arrested on July 7, 2004 while he was going with his wife on a bicycle. After his arrest, the man was allegedly tortured and he died in the police custody following which his family had moved the high court for a CBI investigation.

On February, 21 2005, the HC directed the CBI to take up the case. After the probe, the agency said Mondal had been severely beaten up in the police custody and Mukherjee led the assault. Post-mortem report showed there were 84 injury marks on his body adding he was beaten with belt and stick.

The police, however, had claimed that Mondal had tried to escape from the police jeep and fell down after which he died of serious injuries.

The CBI filed the charge-sheet against Mukherjee on July, 2006, in which it pressed charges under Sections 302(murder) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, besides other charges like tampering with the police records.