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• The Times of India had carried a news report with the headline, "No proof in 21 rape, rape-attempt cases mentioned by NHRC, CBI says"

The Additional Solicitor General at Calcutta High Court, Y.J. Dastoor has called upon the Editor of 'The Times of India' to immediately retract a report & apologise for wrongly reporting developments in the ongoing Bengal Violence cases before Calcutta High Court.

Mr. Dastoor has stated that there is no truth in the reports which state that the CBI had made a submission as reported in the hearing on January 3, 2021. 

According to the new reports of Time of India, the Central Bureau of Investigation (C.B.I) had told Calcutta High Court that it had not found any evidence in the 21 alleged rape complaints during post-poll violence which were mentioned by National Human Rights Commission.

The letter reads as follows:

“The proceedings in the post-poll violence matters, which were taken up for hearing by the Hon'ble High Court at Calcutta on January 3, 2022, have been reported in The Times of India, Calcutta Edition dated January 4, 2022 and in your web edition dated 4.1.2022 respectively. Unfortunately, the said reports contain not an iota of truth with regard to the statements allegedly made on behalf of the C.B.I. None of the statements as reported in the aforesaid two articles were made on behalf of the C.B.I. in the hearing yesterday.

In fact, the headlines and the facts and figures mentioned in your said report are absolutely untrue. It is a cause of great concern that such false reports in a sensitive matter have been published by a newspaper of such repute. It would be in the fitness of things to immediately publish a retraction as to the authenticity of the facts contained in the said reports, as published by you, as also to publically apologize for the same.”

The Additional Solicitor General has asked for immediate retraction of the claim and a public apology for the same.

The CBI is probing allegations of murder, rape and attempted rape among the allegations of unrest following the 2021 Assembly polls, allegedly at behest of the ruling dispensation - the TMC-led government in the state.

The Division Bench of Justice Prakash Srivastava and Rajarshi Bharadwaj has ordered the human rights commission to submit a report in a list form of the steps taken for all the allegations of post poll violence by 24th January, 2022.