“Total Failure of Law & Order?”: SG Tushar Mehta Slams West Bengal Govt in SCI

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Until the Chief Minister of so and so, along with the DG police West Bengal and Kolkata police commissioner and a force of about 100 policemen forcibly took away documents which were taken in possession by the ED officials concerning the search. There is a pattern of complete breach of rule of law. This is not an isolated first of its kind incident where the honorable CM barges into an investigation is parted.

[00:00:25]Investigation by the lawful authorities are parted. To show that this is a pattern Yes. And therefore I have I have made averments that please take cognizance.

[00:00:34]Because during the search on 8 1 26 which was being concluded conducted peacefully and in a lawful manner until the Chief Minister of West so and so along with the DG police West Bengal and Kolkata police commissioner and a force of about 100 policemen barged into by committing criminal house trespass at the residence of Prateek Jain where the search was going on and illegally committed theft and forcibly took away documents which were taken in possession by the ED officials concerning the search. The following conducts but we have said what are the offenses what are which are made out. Now please come to my lord.

[00:01:14]This is not my lord an isolated case that we rushed before your lordships.

[00:01:18]My lord this can be brushed aside as an isolated case. My lord I have made out a case that in the state of West Bengal, my lord such a beautiful state, my lord considered to be the cultural capital of this country. My lord what is the position my lord it has been brought to and that is what I want to show there is a pattern of complete breach of rule of law. My lord that your lordships would find at page 90.

[00:01:46]This is not an isolated first of its kind incident where the honorable CM barges into an investigation is parted.

[00:01:54]Investigation by the lawful authorities are parted.

[00:02:02]Para my lord the Roman six.

[00:02:06]It is submitted that the CBI was is conducting an investigation under the judicial orders passed by this honorable court. My lord we are an extended limb of this honorable court in this particular case. In pursuance to the same I'm talking about now CBI. What they faced.

[00:02:24]In pursuance to the said investigation the team of CBI officials My lord this is an There I go. Page 90.

[00:02:32]Page 19 Roman >> Roman 19. six. Roman six.

[00:02:37]Just to show that this is a pattern Yes.

[00:02:40]and therefore I have I have made averments that please take cognizance.

[00:02:43]This is from another investigation.

[00:02:45]>> Investigation. Yes from another investigation by the CBI. But modus operandi same, individuals involved same and the pattern is same. To show that present incident is not a stand alone isolated case.

[00:02:58]It is a pattern. The rule of law is the rule.

[00:03:03]Absence of rule of law is the rule.

[00:03:08]My lord page 19 first sentence. The present incident for which prayer is made for registration of FIR and investigation by CBI is not a solitary incident of such nature wherein the respondent number two, my lord the honorable Chief Minister, has misused the state machinery to criminally intimidate officers investigating serious offenses against her or her party members. It is submitted that it is a matter of record of the court proceedings that the respondent number two the honorable Chief Minister has made a pattern to take law into her into her own hands and misuse the state police wherever, whenever any crime is investigated which is not of her liking.

[00:03:50]Then my lord next para. It is submitted that CBI was and is conducting an investigation under the judicial orders passed by this honorable court. In pursuance to the said investigation the team of CBI officials wanted to visit the then police commissioner. My lord the then police commissioner in the present case was the Director General of Police. Was. Now my lord he is a member of Rajya Sabha from my lord the same party few days back.

[00:04:16]Shockingly respondent number two, that is the honorable CM, came with a huge police force and sat down at the main gate of the residence of the police commissioner. The CBI officers were arrested by the local police.

[00:04:33]And were taken to nearby police station and intimidated. It is again a matter of record that neither the police commissioner was permitted to be interrogated on that day nor his premises was permitted to be searched.

[00:04:47]In yet another shocking incident, my lord this is not a this is a pattern not an isolated case. In yet another shocking incident the respondent number two, the honorable Chief Minister, barged into the regional office of the CBI along with heavy police deployment and a large crowd which was constantly pelting stones at the office of the CBI office at Kolkata. Simultaneously a large crowd, my lord I'll read the affidavit of the joint director.

[00:05:19]In that case, my lord what he faced in in this case, my lord please have a look. Simultaneously a large crowd was sent at the residence of the joint commi- joint director CBI. The crowd gheraoed and started thumping the door and window violently to get it open. The joint director had to frantically made telephone calls to save himself and his family. It was only after the central forces reached to his rescue that he was rescued. My lord at this stage, my lord please have a look at his affidavit which was filed in different proceedings but regarding this particular incident, my lord. Please have a look at my lord.

[00:06:00]The affidavit, my lord.

[00:06:02]My lord IA, my lord there is an additional document filed long back.

[00:06:07]Uh IA my lord 65087.

[00:06:13]And and look at the agony he went through along with his family members.

[00:06:21]IA 65087.

[00:06:25]65087.

[00:06:27]65087.

[00:06:42]But this is on 32 that when there is a repeated failure a pattern of failure of law and order at the hands of those who are supposed to maintain it, protecting it and respecting. My lord 32 is a duty it's not just a right. My lord that's the judgment my lord your lordships have seen and I'm going to rely upon that judgment.

[00:07:02]My lord here this is the incident where the CBI officers were arrested by the local police. They were they went to interrogate the police commissioner.

[00:07:12]Now my lord what happens to the joint director stationed at Kolkata.

[00:07:18]Joint director of CBI at Kolkata.

[00:07:21]Page 97.

[00:07:25]My lord one Partha Mukherjee. Kindly my lord bear in mind nothing turns on that.

[00:07:29]Just to my lord Page page Page 97. My lord the this is an affidavit which starts at page 96. Affidavit of Pankaj Kumar Srivastava joint director Kolkata.

[00:07:44]In that case, my lord I'm just showing my lord what is the level of my lord failure of rule of law.

[00:07:50]And rule of law is a part of article 14.

[00:07:53]Para para three, my lord at page 97.

[00:07:59]I state and submit that as soon as I was given the said information by Shri Partha Mukherjee who is SP CBI stationed at my lord Kolkata that our people are arrested and they have the crowd is coming to you with police force.

[00:08:16]I closed the doors and the curtains of my house.

[00:08:19]My lord my lord this is an allegation.

[00:08:22]of my house. I state and submit that by the time we could close the doors and curtains the police personnel of Kolkata police had already reached my residence.

[00:08:31]I state and submit that the police personnel at first started banging at the main door of my house and soon the sounds of their shouts of their wireless sets could be heard from outside my house. I state and submit that I immediately telephonically informed my seniors in CBI head office in New Delhi and requested them to contact the Union Government and ask the officials to urgently approach the honorable Supreme Court as I along with my family was in complete state of lockdown. I state and submit that due to the siege and lockdown of my house at the instance of Kolkata police I was unable to move out and check the security and safety of my officers and the office offices of CBI.

[00:09:16]My wife and daughter were terrified with the menacing shouts of the police personnel outside. I state and submit that police personnel kept banging on the main door of my house and kept shouting from the outside the house. I state and submit that the said siege of my house under the aforementioned circumstances with clear intent to harass, intimidate, threaten me and to apprehend me continued on for more than two and half hours in total. I state and submit that in light of the aforementioned facts the assertion that the police personnel gathered around my house for security purpose is an attempt to obfuscate. Then my lord para four is important. I state and submit that fearing the security and well-being of CBI officers and my family, I made attempts to contact the chief secretary of West Bengal, but could not reach him over the telephone. I state and submit that while the above-mentioned siege was going on, I received a few phone calls from journalists who informed me that they were not being allowed to come closer to my residence at Nizam Palace complex by the Kolkata police. I state and submit that I narrated the ongoing incidents to the media on the telephone, which was live telecast nationally. The joint director in siege talking to journalists on phone and the media telecasting it.

[00:10:43]Uh narrated ongoing incidents to the media on the telephone. I state and submit that my conversion with the social media personnel was purportedly telecast on national television. I confirmed the same fact after the incident was over. I state that it was only around 9:00 p.m., that is after the telephone call had been telecast nationally, and the CRPF had reached the Nizam Palace complex, that the police personnel of Kolkata police withdrew from the blatant siege of my house. But when your Lordships are on this, please also see the affidavit, my lord, of the person who went for interrogation, my lord, that is Mr. Tathagata Vardan, Dy.

[00:11:24]SP, which is at page 90.

[00:11:27]Now, what happened after this petition this affidavit was filed in that in in some other proceedings, my lord. What happened? We wanted, my lord, the interrogation of uh the then police commissioner, who became DG now, and now he's a member of parliament. We were permitted, my lord, to have his interrogation, but still, my lord, the the whatever, my lord, what destruction were happened had happened.

[00:11:52]Now, look this this This reputation was also 232 My lord, this was a petition filed by somebody wherein we were directed to investigate. We were respondents.

[00:12:04]We were respondents. We were directed to investigate. So, we were directed, and therefore we were carrying out the directions of the court. This was in some contempt petition. Yes. So, we filed a contempt petition.

[00:12:16]Mhm.

[00:12:17]I'm just pointing this out that these are contemporaneous facts. And my lord, I'm not reading, my lord, but this police This incident This contemporaneous was 2019 2019 2019 19 My lord, the My lord, the the the visuals are I state and submit that on second paragraph Yes.

[00:12:39]My lord, visuals are shocking and embarrassing as citizens. When the honorable chief minister thereafter sat on a dharna, the uniformed police officers sat with her on dharna.

[00:12:51]IPS officials. My lord, I have got the photograph. I leave it for your Lordships' consideration. I don't want to, my lord, sensationalize. The photographs are on record.

[00:12:59]But they are black and white, my lord. I have I have I have procured, my lord, the colored photograph. Kindly, my lord, see at your Lordships' leisure.

[00:13:07]This is the This was the position.

[00:13:10]And, my lord, it was being live telecast. I have heard it.

[00:13:13]That uh joint director is uh asking for help, and nobody is going there.

[00:13:18]Ultimately, my lord, the home secretary had to send my lord uh central police force to rescue the family.

[00:13:25]This was the 2019 incident. Yes.

[00:13:30]My lord, then there is another incident.

[00:13:33]Please come to page 20.

[00:13:35]Another incident.

[00:13:38]Yes.

[00:13:40]Page Page 220 of the repetition Yes.

[00:13:46]Para Roman eight, repetition.

[00:13:49]Yes.

[00:13:52]In yet another case Another another case, my lord, not the this case which I narrated.

[00:14:06]In another case of hearing of a bail petition of a sitting minister, your Lordships gets Yes.

[00:14:13]in the cabinet of the honorable chief minister, who was guilty of serious offenses being investigated by the CBI under the orders of this court, the sitting CM with a crowd, my lord, it should be in law minister, my lord, it's a mistake. He appeared I am aware.

[00:14:27]Kindly allow me to correct. My lord, it's not CM went to the office.

[00:14:33]Uh law minister came to the court.

[00:14:36]Court not only court, court room where the hearing was going on.

[00:14:40]Uh law minister with a crowd of about 5,000 people entered the court premises.

[00:14:46]The sitting chief minister and the crowd remained in the court room, my lord, again law minister, itself creating an intimidating atmosphere for the judge to decide impartially. These facts are also brought to the notice of Kolkata High Court, but nothing has happened so far.

[00:15:01]But the law minister was there to maintain law and order.

[00:15:05]What is this? My lord, their stand is here, my lord, when we asked that when [snorts] the chief minister barged in in the prison killing, what was DG and police commissioner doing?

[00:15:14]Their answer on affidavit is that she's a Z category protectee, so we were there to give her protection as if the director general of police is a personal PSO of the chief minister, and he's not supposed to do any policing work and be with the chief minister. I'll come to that.

[00:15:31]Then, my lord, Roman 10.

[00:15:33]Such FIRs have manifold ulterior motives. The first is to intimidate the officers, uh to deter them from conducting any investigation in the present or in future. In the instant case, under the guise of FIR, please note this, my lord.

[00:15:49]In the instant case, now I'm coming back to the instant case.

[00:15:53]Uh West Bengal police took away CCTV camera, which has captured the unlawful activities of honorable chief minister.

[00:16:01]When she entered, with whom she entered, how many police force was there, there were CCTV cameras, my lord.

[00:16:08]But they say they have registered cases against me, and in part as a part of that investigation, they removed the CCTV cameras and took it as, my lord, case custody.

[00:16:20]This is also an offense of destroying the evidence under the garb of investigation.