Supreme Court allows CBI to withdraw violence case petitions

The Supreme Court allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation to withdraw about 20 petitions seeking to move 2021 West Bengal post-poll violence cases to courts outside the state, after the agency cited changed circumstances. Separately, the court reserved its order on an Enforcement Directorate request for a CBI probe into alleged interference with searches at an IPAC office in Kolkata. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court the CBI was seeking to withdraw the petitions because of changed circumstances. The agency had filed them in 2023, citing concerns about alleged witness intimidation, threats to prosecution lawyers and whether fair trials could be held in West Bengal. The Supreme Court allowed the withdrawal. The state’s Criminal Investigation Department has started 458 fresh inquiries and registered 181 new FIRs related to complaints about the violence, according to reports of the department’s actions. It has also reopened 59 cases in which final reports had previously been submitted. The counts describe different steps: inquiries, FIRs and reopened cases. The violence followed the 2021 West Bengal Assembly election results and prompted allegations of attacks,...