A Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court will begin hearing the appeal filed by the seven accused in the Rizwanur Rehman death case from Monday.

On a petition filed by the CBI, the Division Bench of acting Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice Prasenjit Mondal on Thursday directed the agency to serve notices to all the parties related to the case.

The appeal has been pending in the High Court for nearly 14 months and its hearing is significant for the trial to begin at the Bankshal criminal court.

On August 14, 2008 nearly a year after Rehman, a computer graphics designer who had married Priyanka Todi, was found dead beside the railway tracks in Dum Dum — a single-member Bench of the Calcutta High Court had directed the CBI to file a chargesheet against the seven accused — Ashok Todi, father of Priyanka Todi, Pradip Todi, Anil Saraogi, former Deputy Commissioner of Kolkata Police (Detective Department) Ajay Kumar, former ACP Anti-Rowdy Squad Sukanti Chakraborty, Sub-Inspector Krishnendu Das, and friend of the Rehman family Moiuddin.

Following this, the CBI filed a chargesheet on September 22, 2008 at the Bankshal criminal court with charges of criminal conspiracy, abetment to suicide and criminal intimidation against the seven accused.

Meanwhile, hearing a petition filed by Ashok Todi, the Supreme Court directed that the trial could not be initiated in the Bankshal criminal court unless the appeal filed by the accused in the High Court was disposed of.