New Delhi

The Supreme Court of India on Friday allowed the National Investigation Agency to file a chargesheet after completing its investigation into the April 1 incident in West Bengal in which seven judicial officers were allegedly illegally confined by a mob in Malda district.

Around 700 judicial officers from West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand are currently deployed for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process to handle more than 60 lakh objections from people excluded from voter rolls.

The apex court had earlier taken suo motu cognisance of a letter from the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice describing the April 1 night incident, where seven judicial officers — including three women — and a five-year-old child were allegedly held for over nine hours without food or water.

Following directions from the court and a complaint by the Election Commission of India, the NIA took over the investigation.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, was informed by Additional Solicitor General S V Raju that a fresh status report had been submitted detailing progress in the probe.

The bench then observed that the NIA would be free to submit its chargesheet before a competent court. It also accepted the agency’s request not to file further status reports for now, noting that investigators were deeply engaged in the probe.

Earlier on April 13, the Supreme Court had ordered that security provided to judicial officers involved in the SIR exercise must continue until the end of the upcoming Assembly elections and could not be withdrawn without prior approval.

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The court had also sought to know whether those arrested in the case had any political affiliations, saying the matter must be taken to its logical conclusion.